The Valley Players Playwright Award
The Valley Players Playwright Award was established in 1982. The intent of the award is to promote the theater arts and to encourage and support the creation of original plays by residents of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
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Award submissions are due by February 1, and must be a full-length, non-musical play suitable for production by a community theater company. The play must not have been previously published or produced. A cash prize of $1,000 will be awarded to the winning playwright. The Valley Players reserves the right not to award a prize.
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By accepting the prize money, the playwright agrees to allow the Valley Players exclusive production rights free of charge until the close of their production or for one year, unless otherwise negotiated.​
History
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The History of the Valley Players Playwright Award
By Doug Bergstein
One thousand dollars for a new play. Now that’s the kind of contest any playwright could get excited about. Well, the Valley Players Theater in Waitsfield holds such a contest...annually.
It all started in 1982 when RA Montgomery and Shannon Gilligan proposed the idea to the Valley Players. The Board thought it was a great idea and began planning. Soon after that, Audrey Mixer, a devoted member of the Valley Players, passed away from cancer. She had been very involved with the Valley Players on stage while her husband, Richard Mixer, was more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. Stage managing was his gig. In addition to loving being on stage, Audrey was also quite invested in supporting budding playwrights. Because of all that, Richard donated $1,000 in memory of Audrey to create a fund for the Valley Players Vermont Playwright Award.
The idea caught on and a group of people donated money the following year to establish a fund in order for the award to become an annual tradition. “Support was strong and interest rates were great so the award was granted from this fund for several years,” remarked long-time board member Sharon Kellermann. Eventually the fund dried up but the Valley Players Theater Board has continued supporting the award ever since.
An award has been granted almost every single year of the past 36. There are generally 8-12 plays submitted each year. While it was originally open to Vermont residents only, that soon expanded to residents of New Hampshire and Maine in order to increase the number of participants. The play must be full length, a non-musical and cannot have been previously produced or published.
It’s safe to say that the contest has seen over 400 new plays. There have been two two-time winners; one of them in consecutive years. The first winner, Out of Sight...Out of Murder by Fred Carmichael, was part of the Valley Players 40th Anniversary Season. Mr. Carmichael went on to publish 50 plays during his lifetime.
While there have been a variety of judges over the years, the organization of the program has been consistent. Jennifer Howard was in charge of publicity and communication with the playwrights until just a few years ago. Brian Stone organized the judges and developed the criteria for awarding a winner until sometime in the 1990s. Sharon Kellermann took over for Brian when he moved south and she is now in charge of the entire program.
So, interested in trying your hand at writing a play? Been trying to get published but always running into closed doors? This completely open-to-all contest is exactly what you are looking for. The deadline is February 1 and the judges make their decision by the middle of May. While not every winner makes its way to our stage, we have certainly produced more than a dozen of them. Start writing today!
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- The Valley Reporter, December 12, 2019