Last Minute Theatre

SUSAN SMITH BLACKBURN PRIZE
30th Anniversary Celebration
Request for Houston Women Playwrights

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize will celebrate its 30th Anniversary in 2008. The celebration will take place on March 9 and 10 at the Alley Theatre. As part of this event, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is launching a Houston Special Project highlighting the accomplishments of women in theatre in Houston. We invite women playwrights from the greater Houston
area to submit a letter of interest and supporting materials to be considered for this Special Project. From these letters of interest, a select group of playwrights will be invited to submit short works to be considered for the Houston Special Project. Playwrights whose works are selected for the Houston Special Project will receive a $500 honorarium.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, established in 1978, is given annually to a woman who deserves recognition for having written a work of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre. As a direct result of being finalists, many playwrights have received productions, grants and public recognition. The Prize has motivated women to write for the theatre, and has also fostered the interchange of plays between the United States and Britain, Ireland and other English-speaking countries. It has anticipated later recognition; six finalists have subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is now firmly established as a highly regarded international competition.

The Houston Special Project: To mark the 30th Anniversary of the Prize, works by Blackburn Prize winners as well as the selected submissions of Houston playwrights will be presented as readings by Houston’s professional acting community, produced by a city-wide creative coalition of 5 Houston theatres: the Alley Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, TheatreLab Houston, Mainstreet Theater and Stages Repertory Theatre.

December 4-Deadline for letters of interest
Dec. 10- Playwrights will be selected to submit a short work and will be notified. The short work can be in the form of a 10-minute play or scene. The work must be unproduced.
January 22-Deadline for invited playwrights to submit work
February 1-Winning playwrights will be notified (Work will be rehearsed during the month of February)

Letter of Interest Phase:
All entries must be received NO LATER THAN December 4, 2007. Entries may be submitted electronically or by U.S. Mail. Entries must include: one page letter of interest-please make a case for your work one page resume (please include email address) 3 page writing sample
2 professional theatre references of people familiar with your work-These are reference contact
information only, no letter of reference is required. Please include telephone and email
contact information.

Materials should be sent to:
blackburnprize@yahoo.com
Or
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
3239 Avalon Place
Houston, TX 77019