[NEohioPAL] Announcing our New Play Competition for area playwrights

[convergence-continuum]

CONVERGENCE-CONTINUUM ANNOUNCES A NEW PLAY COMPETTIION OPEN TO NE OHIO
PLAYWRIGHTS. THE WINNING PLAY WILL RECEIVE A FULL-SCALE PRODUCTION FOR A
FIVE-WEEK RUN, DIRECTED BY C-C'S ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, DURING OUR 2009
SEASON.

ELIGIBLE PLAYS: We're looking for unproduced plays (previous public
readings are ok) by NE Ohio playwrights, plays that coincide with
convergence-continuum's artistic mission (see Artistic Mission Statement
below) and our approach to production and performance.  This latter
includes up-close staging in our intimate performance space, the Liminis.
(Large cast size is not appropriate. The play should require 8 actors or
less.)  Plays should be a full evening's event, i.e. a long one-act of at
east 75 minutes, or a 2-3 act play (no longer than 2 hours, though). We
don't do musicals, but plays with music are highly welcomed. As a basic
guideline to the types of plays in which we are interested, a listing of
the playwrights/plays which convergence-continuum has produced in the past
7 seasons is given below.  (This is a ballpark guideline only. We're not
looking for plays "in the style of" any of them.  Blow us away with your
own out-of-the-ordinary approach.)

WHAT/HOW TO SUBMIT: Only complete drafts will be accepted (i.e. no
outlines or "treatments").  Send one copy to
convergence-continuum
The Liminis
2438 Scranton Rd.
Cleveland, OH 44113,
or if you're in the neighborhood, put it in the mailbox around back of the
theater.

If you would like your manuscript to be returned to you, enclose a
self-addressed envelope with the required postage.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:  To be considered, manuscripts must be received no
later than January 15.  (Earlier is real good.)

SELECTION:  The winning play will be selected by January 31 (that's why
earlier is so good), in time for the announcement of our full season by
the end of the month.

PRODUCTION:  The winning play will be produced in one of the slots of our
2009 season under the direction of convergence-continuum Artistic
Director, Clyde Simon.  It will open on a Friday and run 5 weeks,
Thurs-Sat at 8 pm, for 14 performances.  An initial in-house reading (for
company members and invited guests) will be held in April.  Further
in-house readings and workshopping will take place prior to the full-scale
rehearsal process and performance run.

QUESTIONS: Please reply by email to csimon at convergence-continuum.org.
-----------------------------
ARTISTIC MISSION STATEMENT:

Most theatres are like mirrors, reflecting the familiar. You go to a show,
you sit, you watch a play, and then you go home. You watch the actors from
across the chasm of a "fourth wall." Everything is nicely laid out for you
as you view what is comfortably, safely beyond that wall, confident that
you will be made, indeed are expected, to understand the experience in
terms of conventional logic.

Aren’t we all tired of that by now?

What if theatre weren’t a mirror reflecting the familiar, but an opening
into unknown territory? What if there were no fourth wall? What if,
instead of going to the theatre to watch a play, you crossed the threshold
into the world of the play to experience it? Theatre that expands the
imagination and extends the conventional boundaries of language,
structure, space, and performance that challenges the conventional notions
of what theatre is. What sort of theatre would this be?

We are convergence-continuum.
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PREVIOUSLY PRODUCED PLAYS:

Mac Wellman (Sincerity Forever, 7 Blowjobs, Cleveland, Whirligig, A Murder
of Crows), Sam Shepard (The Unseen Hand, Action, La Turista, States of
Shock, Buried Child), Paula Vogel (Hot 'n' Throbbing, And Baby Makes
Seven), Jose Rivera (Each Day Dies With Sleep, References to Salvador Dali
Make Me Hot), Nicky Silver (Free Will & Wanton Lust, Pterodactyls), Doug
Wright (Quills), Joyce Carol Oates (Tone Clusters), Daniel Therriault,
(Battery), Constance Congdon (Tales of the Lost Formicans), Jeff Goode
(Poona the F@#kdog), Edwin Sanchez (Icarus), Jordan Harrison (Act a Lady),
Erin Courtney (Demon Baby), Noah Haidle (Mr. Marmalade), Norman Allen(In
the Garden), Carson Kreitzer (Freakshow).
And Cleveland playwrights Christopher Johnston (Spawn of the Petrolsexuals
–2007, Tom Hayes (Lord of the Burgeoning Lumber –2008)