SUBMISSION DEADLINES

PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for all regional opportunities (Ten-Minute Plays, One Act Plays, and the Region III Full-Length Award) is November 1, 2023.

If you are submitting work that was produced by your college/university for consideration for the National KCACTF Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards, you can submit work up until December 1, 2023

On this page, you will find all the relevant information on how to submit your work for consideration for playwriting opportunities at the regional level, and for the national KCACTF Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards.

At the regional level, we accept submissions for student-written work in the following categories:

  • Ten-Minute Plays
  • One Act Plays
  • Full-Length Plays (plays that have NOT been produced or given a rehearsed reading at a college/university in the region)

In addition, if your college or university is producing a new play (written by a student, faculty member or guest artist) then we strongly encourage you to consider submitting it as an Associate or Participating entry in KCACTF. If you do, then the script becomes eligible for a host of national awards, including the David Mark Cohen Award through the Kennedy Center.

For information on submission opportunities at both the regional and national level and to submit your work, please visit this link: https://kcactf.submittable.com/submit

PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for all regional opportunities (Ten-Minute Plays, One Act Plays, and the Region III Full-Length Award) is November 1, 2023.

If you are submitting work that was produced by your college/university for consideration for the National KCACTF Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards, you can submit work up until December 1, 2023.

For more information on submissions and the NPP program, please contact Genesee Spridco, Region III NPP Chair at: kcactf3npp@gmail.com

PROGRAM INFORMATION

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Playwriting Program (NPP) offers three (3) programs for student-written work: ten-minute plays, one act plays, and full-length plays. See below for specific guidelines and awards for each program, but please make note of these overall guidelines for ALL manuscripts:

All plays must be blind submissions, which means that the playwright’s name and any identifying information (including school information) must be removed from the manuscript in its entirety. This includes the title page, and all headers and footers throughout the text of the play.
All plays will be evaluated by readers from outside Region 3. Playwrights’ names will be associated with their manuscripts through the electronic form submitted via the Submittable website.

Each playwright may submit up to two (2) plays in EACH category (a total of six (6) scripts). Submitting more than two (2) scripts in any one category will render your entire entry ineligible.

For KCACTF, a ten-minute play is ten (10) pages or fewer (in 12 point typeface, not including character information or title page). Please note that the maximum limit for this category is ten pages – do NOT send us any more than ten pages on the assumption that the run time will be under ten minutes.

Up to six (6) ten-minute plays will be chosen as finalists by readers outside the region, and will be given rehearsed readings at the Region 3 Festival. From these six, two (2) finalists will be chosen for the national ten minute play festival at the Kennedy Center, and the playwrights will be asked to submit their scripts to the Kennedy Center for consideration.

For KCACTF, a one act play is more than ten (10) pages, and less than one hour playing time. Generally 15-45 pages in length, a one act play is performed with no intermission.

Up to four (4) one act plays will be chosen as finalists by readers outside the region and will be given readings at the Region 3 Festival. From these four, two (2) finalists will be chosen to be considered for the John Cauble Short Play Award, and the playwrights will be asked to submit their scripts to the Kennedy Center for consideration.

This opportunity is for student playwrights from Region 3 who have NOT entered their play as either an associate or participating production. One full-length play will be awarded the Region 3 Full-Length Play award. The winning playwright will also be invited to present their work as a script-in-hand reading at the Region 3 Festival. In addition to the general guidelines for all submissions, please note the following additional guidelines for full-length plays:

  1. Running time for the play must be longer than 60 minutes.
  2. If selected, the playwright is expected to attend the regional festival where the play will be given a script-in-hand reading. If the playwright cannot attend the festival their play will still be eligible for the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards, provided that the play has been either produced by a college or university, or publicly presented in a “rehearsed” or “staged reading” format following a significant development process. This reading can occur at their home school or at the regional festival (either is acceptable).
  3. If chosen to participate in the Region 3 festival, the playwright may choose to bring their own director and cast, or they can choose to have a director assigned and a cast selected from among the actors who audition for the ten-minute play readings on the Wednesday afternoon of the festival.
  4. Plays submitted for consideration for the Region 3 full-length play award may also eligible for some national awards for full-length plays from the KCACTF Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program, with the exception the National Student Playwriting Award, which must be awarded to a play entered as a participating production. When submitting your play, please check the boxes next to the national awards you would like to have your play considered for. You can read more about the national award categories at the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program.

KCACTF, working together with Planet Earth Arts and Stanford University, is seeking student-written ten-minute or one act plays that specifically address issues of climate change, the environment and surrounding issues of urgent concern. For KCACTF, a ten-minute play is ten (10) pages or fewer (please see rules above for ten-minute plays). The winning play in this category will receive a $250 award at the Region 3 Festival and will be eligible for a $500 award at the National Festival.

In order to be considered for this prize, you must submit your play to the appropriate category (ten-minute play or one act play) on the Submittable home page, and then self-select the “Planet Earth Award” category.

The distinguished playwright and screenwriter Michael Kanin (1910-1993) arranged for a remarkable series of awards to be given to student writers whose plays are entered as part of the festival. The purpose of the program is to encourage college students to write for the stage by providing the opportunity for them to engage in the playwriting process.

If your play was entered as either an associate or participating production in the region, it is eligible for several national KCACTF awards through the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program.

To submit a play for consideration for one or more of the national KCACTF awards, follow the link to the region 3 submittable tool below, use the link for “Full-Length Plays (NATIONAL KCACTF MICHAEL KANIN PLAYWRITING AWARDS PROGRAM)” and then self-selected which award(s) you would like the play to be considered for. You can read more about each category here:

Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program

NOTE: Full length plays must also be submitted directly to Gregg Henry at the National Office: ghenry@kennedy-center.org

Submit Your Play Now!

Genesee Spridco

Genesee Spridco

NPP Chair

Assistant Teaching Professor
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
608-347-3484

Quincy Thomas

Quincy Thomas

NPP Co-Vice Chair

Kalamazoo College
Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts
Department of Theatre Arts
A1200 Academy Street
Kalamazoo, Michigan
49006-3295
269.337.7126

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