Imagine you have just 2 days to write a 10 minute play using the following ingredients:
What would you write?
Might you find freedom and focus by having those restrictions?
What would your bake-off ingredients look like?
[Hint: This would be a great writing exercise for you to take on with a group of friends as a weekend writing sprint just for fun or for distraction. If you are having a tough time generating a list of ingredients, then let me know, and I’ll send you some. See below for links to the origin of the Bake-Off.]
In early April, the Women’s Theatre Festival released the list of required ingredients above, and eighteen NC playwrights stepped up to create their speedily written masterpieces.
This weekend, you can listen to their freshly baked plays!
Saturday, May 16th at 2:00 pm ALL of the submitted plays will be read back-to-back online. Listen via this link https://www.twitch.tv/wtheatrefestivalnc, then VOTE for your favorite.
One Audience Choice play will join four Adjudicator Choices at the Women’s Theatre Festival’s #OccupyTheStage2020 for a reading. I have the honor of working with the playwrights to continue developing their work for that event.
Big thanks to Triangle Bake-Off director Madison McAllister and Johannah Maynard Edwards, Executive Director of the Women’s Theatre Festival for doing the heavy lifting to make this event happen. Congratulations to the playwrights and thanks to the actors and adjudicators for their good work.
In collaboration with Tamara Kissane, the 2020 Piedmont Laureate, and local theatre artist Hayden Tyler Moses, Women’s Theatre Festival (WTF) proudly announces the Triangle Bake-Off Competition.
This spirited playwrighting competition is open to North Carolina residents of all ages and experience levels.
The Bake-Off will begin at 7:00 am on Friday, April 3 when WTF releases the list of “secret ingredients” that each script must include.Submissions must be received by 7:00 pm on Sunday, April 5 to beconsidered. See below for additional timeline and info.
Competitors will elect to compete in one of five divisions:
● Youth (anyone under high school age)
● High School (any current high school student)
● College (anyone currently enrolled at an institution of higher learning)
● First-Timer (anyone who is NOT a student and has NEVER written a play)
● Practitioner (anyone who is a practicing writer or artist)
Submissions will be read and scored by a team of adjudicators who will select 3-5 finalists per division. Those finalists will receive a reading of their drafts through the WTF Virtual Plays Club. Audiences will then get the chance to vote for their favorites. The play in each division that receives the most votes will receive a professional staged reading during WTF’s Occupy The Stage staged reading festival in November of this year.
Throughout the next six months, Piedmont Laureate Tamara Kissane will offer the playwrights coaching and feedback as they prepare their final drafts for performance.
1. All playwrights must be North Carolina residents
2. Playwrights may identify as any gender.
3. Playwrights may submit a maximum of 15 pages*
4. Playwrights must follow formatting guidelines**
5. Playwrights must use all of the 4 ingredients in their “recipes”
6. Plays should be written for 4 actors to perform. If your script includes more than 4 characters, please include doubling instructions.
7. Submissions must be received via the submission form on the WTF website by 7:00 pm on 04/05/2020.
*The spirit of the Bake-Off is not finished or perfect scripts, but an interesting and exciting START. You may submit a draft that is fewer than 15 formatted pages.
**Formatting guidelines may be relaxed for very young (ie 5-10 years old) playwrights.
RESOURCES & FURTHER INFO:
● Visit the WTF website for full info on formatting guidelines and to learn more about the history of Bake-Offs.
● Each submission will be read and scored by 3 adjudicators chosen because of their expertise in that particular division. Submissions will be read “blind,” meaning that the adjudicators will not see the name or other identifying information of the playwright so that they may be as impartial as possible.
● Adjudicators are NOT eligible to submit for any division in the competition.
● A Facebook Event will be created for each Virtual Performance via WTF’s Facebook Page. All of the virtual performances will be live-streamed via Twitch.TV/wtheatrefestivalnc and will be available for viewing on our website for voters who miss the live event.
● Listeners will be asked to make a small donation (suggested $5).
● The play from each division that receives the most votes will have a professionally produced staged reading during Occupy The Stage 2020. These playwrights will also receive a small honorarium.
Unlike most WTF sponsored events, male-identifying playwrights will receive equal consideration and will have their plays featured during a new section of Occupy called “The Ally Hour.”
Piedmont Laureate 