Playhouse On The Square Presents THE 7TH ANNUAL PLAYSLAM! COMPETITION

Playhouse on the Square will present the 7th annual PlaySlam! 2024: Empathy in Action! at Overton Square Performing Arts District (66 S. Cooper St., Memphis, TN 38104).

The PlaySlam! window for submissions is November 25th, 2024 - January 10th, 2025. All submissions should be emailed to dayton@playhouseonthesquare.org.

PlaySlam! winners will be selected on January 17th, 2025 with a PlaySlam! Writer's Workshop to follow on February 15th, 2025. 

The PlaySlam! Festival will take place on March 22nd, 2025 (Middle School) and March 23rd, 2025 (High School).

This is the perfect opportunity for English and Theatre educators to allow their students to practice their creative writing and improve their self-confidence in a creative and low-risk way. Please feel free to pass along this information to any Language Arts or Theatre educators you may know, but you also don't have to be directly involved with any classes to enter! All young writers within the age range are eligible to participate.

This year marks the seventh year of Playhouse on the Square’s annual PlaySlam! Young Playwrights Competition and Festival. PlaySlam! is part contest and part celebration of new works by aspiring Mid-South youth writers and theatre artists. All scripts submitted will be adjudicated by a panel of judges that consists of the PlaySlam! Coordinator, Playhouse on the Square staff and Associate/Resident company members, along with local writers and directors. Five (5) finalists and one (1) winner will be chosen to be presented in the PlaySlam! Festival from both the Middle and High School Divisions. The finalists will have their script presented as a staged reading with local actors. The winner will have their script staged with minimal props and costumes and performed and directed by local professional actors. The winners of both divisions will also have their scripts submitted to the Playwrights for Change as the Playhouse on the Square representative in this national competition.The PlaySlam! Competition and Festival happens in stages, with writing and submissions happening through the fall and early winter, the winner and finalists are announced in mid-winter, and the Writer's Workshop and PlaySlam! The Festivities will take place at the end of winter through early spring.

This year's PlaySlam! Theme is: Empathy in Action! 

"Empathy is the ability to listen to someone and emotionally understand what other people feel, see things from their point of view, and imagine yourself in their shoes. Essentially, it is putting yourself in someone else's position without being judgmental and communicating to them that you are there for them. You are responding to them in an empathetic and understanding way."

Feel free to find interesting and unique ways of applying this theme to the scripts that you and your students will write and submit to us!

You can learn more by visiting https://playhouseonthesquare.org/play-slam-youth-playwriting-competition.