Dramatists Play Lab

45th Mid-America Theatre Conference

Deadline for Submissions: November 1, 2024

Submit your proposal here

Click this link for a downloadable PDF of the CFP: 

MATC 2025 Playwriting Dramatists Play Lab

Playwriting Symposium—Dramatists Play Lab

The Playwriting Symposium of the Mid-America Theatre Conference seeks submissions of new, unproduced 10-minute plays for the Dramatists Play Lab. This is a juried event and the first 100 plays will be considered. 

All submissions must be received by Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, at 11:59pm PST.

This call is directed to academic playwrights (faculty members or graduate students) and/or to professional Independent Artists or playwrights. The Symposium enthusiastically echoes MATC’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and especially encourages submissions from playwrights of color and/or from other underrepresented groups. 

This year, there is no official theme for the conference, but we invite playwrights to engage with the following values: 

. . . place. 

…abundance. 

. . . sustainability in theatre/conference practices. 

The Mid-America Theatre Conference commits to advancing intersectional equity, inclusivity, and diversity; creating a conference that is welcoming and fully accessible; and to disrupting the ongoing damage of white supremacy within MATC and the broader academic and theatrical worlds. As part of this effort, we encourage a broad range of submissions by presenters or about theatre of historically disenfranchised and underrepresented populations, particularly those of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. For MATC’s full statement on anti-racism, accessibility, and inclusivity please see our website at http://matc.us. 

MATC prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind, including during all associated meetings, the annual conference sessions, and within publications. In case of questions or concerns, to request specific accommodation, or to report a bias incident, please contact our Equity and Inclusion Officer at equity@matc.us.

Plays selected for the Dramatists Lab will have an assigned Creative Team comprised of a director, dramaturg, and actor(s). All participants assigned to a particular play will receive a digital copy of the final script prior to the start of the conference, and one preliminary conversation—via email, video conference, conference call, etc.—is required of each Creative Team. Participants are therefore expected to reply to emails in a timely fashion to schedule this pre-conference conversation, as well as to make arrangements for the 75-minute, on-site rehearsal. Selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a conference room during a Playwriting Symposium session. Playwrights will receive feedback from a respondent and peers.

All selected playwrights must register for the conference and are expected to attend rehearsals for their play and participate in a post-reading discussion. Unfortunately, the conference is unable to provide funding to assist with the costs of travel and/or lodging. To request specific conference accommodations, please contact Kristi Good, our Acting Accessibility Officer, at access@matc.us. 

Visit the MATC website at http://matc.us to find individual calls for papers for the all-conference papers, pedagogy symposium, playwriting symposium, practice/production symposium, theatre history symposium, articles-in-progress and pitch-your-book workshops, and emerging scholars panels.

All proposals must include:  

• Playwrights are to submit the following two (2) documents:
  • Document one (1) is the script saved as .doc, .docx, or PDF file format
• The Symposium does not employ anonymous review. Submitted scripts are to bear the title of the play and the playwright’s name. 
• Document two (2) is the cover page saved as .doc, .docx, or PDF file format.
  • This document must include the following information: 

1. title of the play, 
2. name of the author
3. address, phone number, and email
4. affiliation (e.g. university/college affiliation, theatre company affiliation, or Independent Artist)
5. a brief statement of 200-400 words about the play’s genesis and the playwright’s positionality for telling the story

• Scripts must be typewritten using Samuel French or similar guidelines with a Times New Roman 12-point font. 
• Scripts may not exceed ten minutes in length.
  • A general page estimate for a 10-minute play includes approximately 8-9 pages, although this is clearly not an exact science. Scripts with fast-paced dialogue are often much shorter in time than plays with extensive monologues.
• Please limit scripts to a maximum of four (4) actors. 
• Playwrights may submit only one (1) 10-minute play script to the Dramatists Play Lab. Playwrights who submit multiple ten-minute plays will not be considered. Plays that have been produced or have received workshops prior to the submission date are not eligible for the Symposium.
  • Playwrights may also submit one (1) full-length or one-act play excerpt to the Pitch-Your-Play program (see separate CFP).
  • Playwrights may also apply to act, direct, or serve as a dramaturg or scenographer for another playwright’s work (see separate CFP).

NOTE: Playwrights who do not follow the above guidelines will not be considered.

The Playwriting Symposium is eager for, and appreciative of, your help in advertising the conference to theatre artists in both academic and professional theatres within the reach of the conference location. We appreciate your help in circulating this call (as well as the symposium’s other calls) widely!

Please submit proposals by Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 at 11:59pm PST via the online form available here. 

Questions can be directed to Bella Poynton at playwriting@matc.us

Please use “DPL Question” as the subject line.

Please note that individuals may submit to up to two symposia, including the Playwriting Symposium. This limit is put in place to avoid scheduling conflicts and to provide more individuals the opportunity to present.