KCACTF One-Act Playwriting Festival

Deadline for Submissions: Monday, October 27, 2008. Playwrights must be students at a college or university in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, or Missouri. If selected, playwrights must be able to attend the regional festival: KCACTF 41, January 18-24, 2009 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. One-Act Plays will be presented on Tuesday evening, January 20, 2009.

Playwrights must submit FOUR neatly bound copies of their script to the Regional Playwriting Chair. Scripts must be submitted in hard copy. Scripts must be submitted in hard copy and online. Online copies should be MS Word or RTF (Rich Text Format) and emailed to: crespyd@missouri.edu. Make sure that you include: "KCACTF REGION V ONE-ACT PLAY" in your subject line of your electronic submission. No playwright may submit more than two different scripts. Both hard and online copies must be received by Monday, October 27, 2008. No playwright may submit more than two different scripts.

Each script submitted must be accompanied by a detachable title page with the writer's name, snail-mail address, e-mail address and phone number clearly printed. The script itself should include a blind title page (with the title of the play only) and also a page specifying the setting and the characters’ ages, genders and descriptions. Please allow a week to ten days if sending your entries via First-Class US Mail. Entries must be received by Monday, October 27, 2008. Scripts received later than this date, or not correctly blinded will not be read.

Plays will be selected by readers FROM ANOTHER REGION. The Region V readers will, in turn, select the other regional plays.

Selected plays will be presented at the regional festival as concert readings at music stands with no blocking. The actors reading the script will be provided by the playwright’s school. Because the invitation to come to the Festival will mean bringing additional students to the festival, all submitted plays must be accompanied by a letter from the playwright’s school’s department head acknowledging that the script is being submitted.

One winning One-Act Play will be automatically invited to the following year’s regional festival as an INVITED PRODUCTION with full production values.

The winning one-act will be chosen by the guest playwriting respondents at the regional festival. The selection will be made based on their own reading of the play, not the public reading at the regional festival. Please remember: a one-act, as defined by KCACTF, is a play with no intermission and lasts between 15 and 60 minutes. (Plays that go either under or over this time are not eligible.)

All colleges and universities with at least one Participating or Associate Entry in KCACTF 41 (January-December 2008) may enter the One-Act Play Festival at no additional charge. Regional submissions from schools with no entries in Festival 41 will pay a $20 entry fee per submission. Checks payable to: KCACTF-5 NPP. Mail all submissions to:

Dr. David A. Crespy

KCACTF Playwriting Chair, Region V

Department of Theatre

University of Missouri-Columbia

129 Fine Arts Building

Columbia, MO 65203

Questions? Contact David Crespy at crespyd@missouri.edu.

Guidelines for the One-Act Play &
The John Cauble Short Play Award

One-Act plays invited to the Region V KCACTF One-Act Play Festival are eligible for the John Cauble Short Play Award, and as such, must follow certain guidelines.

1. The running time of a one-act play is under 60 minutes; when typed in standard format, a one-act play is approximately 15-45 (or so) pages in length; there is no intermission in a one-act play.

2. In order to participated in the John Cauble Short Play Award, a one-act MUST BE INVITED TO THE REGIONAL FESTIVAL—just because you have submitted your play to this festival does not mean that you are eligible for the Cauble. It must be invited.

3. While not wanting to hamper anyone's creativity, recognize that a one-act play will undoubtedly be presented in an evening of one-act plays. Therefore, elaborate settings, multiple characters, extravagant productions values, etc., could conceivably eliminate your play from consideration.

4. A monologue is not a one-act play. A one-act play requires at least two actors in conflict.

5. The true success of a one-act play is reliant on the writer's ability to bring an audience through the same cathartic/entertainment experience that a full-length play accomplishes--i.e., sympathetic characters with recognizable needs encompassed within a resolvable dramatic conflict.

6. For some great examples of student plays that have succeeded in KCACTF, look at a copy of The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Presents: Award-Winning Plays from the Michael Kanin National Playwriting Program, Gary Garrison, ed. New York: Back Stage Books, 2006. ISBN: 082308390X. Find it at your library, or purchase a copy online.

7. For more information on the John Cauble Short Play Award, visit the KCACTF national website and follow this string: www.kcactf.org; Students; Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards; John Cauble Short Play Award.