Portland Stage To Open The 2022 Clauder Competition For New England Playwrights

Portland Stage has announced that New England's most prestigious playwriting contest, the Clauder Competition, is accepting submissions for the 2022 Competition through March 31, 2022.

The Clauder Grand Prize Winner will receive a cash award of $3,000, as well as a full production at Portland Stage with a professional director, designers, and actors. For submission restrictions and guidelines visit the Portland Stage website: portlandstage.org/script-submissions. The winning play will be announced in March 2023.

The Clauder Competition was created in 1981 by Jeb Brooks who was interested in supporting New England playwrights and bringing their work to the attention of the greater theatrical community. The goal of the Clauder Competition is to provide exposure, encouragement, and critical feedback to promising playwrights who typically receive little more than a return postcard for material they send to theaters and producers.

Brooks offered his experience as a writer, "I remember how discouraged I felt when the only response to my submission was a curt statement in the mail saying that my work had been rejected. I wanted to make the competition a more positive experience by ensuring that all submissions would be given a thoughtful reading and feedback."

One of the key components of the Clauder Competition is that every writer who submits a play has that play read and reviewed by at least two readers, and every writer receives a letter from Portland Stage containing details from the evaluations of their submitted play.

Beyond providing feedback to every author, the Clauder Competition identifies exciting new works by New England playwrights and ensures their successful launch through readings and productions. Since 1989, it has been supported by Portland Stage, a professional theater company, which adjudicates the competition and provides a creative home for the winning playwright. In addition to the Grand Prize winner, the Clauder selects two Gold Prize winners that will each receive $1,500. The Grand Prize winners will be invited to workshop their play at the Little Festival of the Unexpected, Portland Stage's annual new play festival where playwrights, professional theater artists, and audiences develop new works in a nurturing environment. The Grand Prize- winning play is then provided a full production in the following year. The 2020 Clauder Competition Grand Prize Winning-play by Greg Lam, The Last Ship to Proxima Centauri, will premiere Spring 2022 at Portland Stage.

Past Clauder Competition-winners who have launched successful playwriting careers include: Brenda Withers, Tom Coash, Gregory Hischak, Adam Bock, Laura Harrington, Elizabeth Egloff, Bridget Carpenter, Melinda Lopez, Liz Duffy Adams, William Donnelly, Kim Rosenstock, and Pulitzer Prize winners Paula Vogel, and Quiara Alegría Hudes.

Additional commendations will be awarded to the best play submitted from each of the six New England States.

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