Performance Venue
Gunston Arts Center, Theatre Two
2700 S Lang Street
Arlington, VA 22206
Avant Bard Theatre Office
3700 S Four Mile Run Drive
Arlington, VA 22206
Get In Touch
703-418-4808
info@avantbard.org

Scripts in Play Festival Submissions

About Avant Bard

Avant Bard Theatre is a professional regional company dedicated to producing the best in classics, both time-tested and contemporary. The Scripts In Play Festival is an annual celebration of new plays that exhibit a fresh take on a classic story or theme. These plays align with Avant Bard’s dedication to producing works that further our society’s conversation with dramatic literary classics — either time-tested or contemporary classics.

Avant Bard is especially interested in staging plays by local playwrights that celebrate and highlight the experiences of people of color, trans and gender diverse people, immigrants, and people with disabilities. We welcome collaborations with artists who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color, or who are transgender, nonbinary, and/or queer, or who are immigrants, or people with disabilities.

About The Opportunity

Avant Bard annually solicits submissions from playwrights, with a preference for playwrights who live and/or work in the D.C. region, to share new and not-yet-produced stories that adapt or reimagine the classics for a contemporary audience.

Selected playwrights are asked to program their work during the festival. Festival plays are assigned a director, who casts and stages two readings with free admission. Rehearsals occur before the initial reading. A special workshop rehearsal, during which the playwright and director have the opportunity to make adjustments based on anything learned through the initial reading and audience feedback–will take place between the two readings. The two readings take place on separate days.

If selected, playwrights will receive a stipend covering the performance rights for the rehearsals, the two performance readings, and the workshop rehearsal in between the readings.

About Scripts In Play 2023-24

Avant Bard will produce the eighth annual Scripts in Play Festival as salon events at various public spaces, including art galleries, throughout the area at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.

To Submit

To submit your script, simply fill out the google form at the following link: https://forms.gle/rZqVYNvfX3Cj6SoC8. The submission window closes July 15, 2023. All submissions for the 2023-4 festival will receive an email update on the status of their application by September 30, 2023. If you have questions about your submission please email scripts@avantbard.org.