The Alliance is thrilled to participate in the Young Playwrights for Change: The Anti-Bully Project, a national playwriting contest for middle school students focused on giving voice to our nation’s young writers. The project looks to harness the creativity of young playwrights and bring focus to real world issues.

The mission of Young Playwrights for Change is to produce meaningful conversations about the topic of bullying that will ripple across our nation to provoke change. The goal is to spark conversation and discussion throughout classrooms, schools and communities about the chosen topic.

Submissions to the Alliance Theatre are due December 31, 2013. One playwright from Georgia will be chosen to represent the Alliance and state of Georgia, and their script will be submitted to the Young Playwrights for Change playwriting national competition, where it will be published in an anthology for teachers to use as a classroom resource. The winner of the national competition and two guests will be flown to Washington, D.C. to have their play read by professional actors at the Kennedy Center in May of 2014.

Click here to download the application.  Please email your completed competition application and your 10-minute play to Amanda Lee Williams at amanda.williams@woodruffcenter.org by December 31, 2013.

Requirements for Submissions:

1.    Participants must be in grades 6-8.

2.    Scripts should be written by only one author. Only original work will be accepted (no adaptations).

3.    When read aloud, the length of the play should be no more than 10 minutes.

4.    Each play may contain up to 6 characters.

5.    Scripts must be written in Standard American format. (see website for further information)

6.    Participants may only submit their entries to one sponsoring regional committee. Each regional committee will select one winner to progress to the national contest. (For the state of Georgia, the Alliance Theatre is the regional committee)

7.    The theme or subject for this competition is anti-bullying, and must be discussed in each 10-minute play.

About the selection process:

After submissions, the pool will be narrowed to approximately 10 finalists. A panel of professional directors and playwrights will then read each script and evaluate its merits and potential for the national competition. The panel will not know the writer’s identity until after they have evaluated each script. One script will be chosen to represent the Alliance Theatre at the national competition, where it will be published in an anthology for teachers to use as a classroom resource. The winner of the national competition and two guests will be flown to Washington, D.C. to have their play read by professional actors at the Kennedy Center in May of 2014.