MEDIA RELEASE
C A LL F O R S U B M I S S I O N S
2011 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition
Submission Deadline: Thursday June 30, 2011
June 2011, Toronto and Calgary…The Cultural Arts Departments of the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre of Toronto in partnership with the Calgary JCC announces a Call for Submissions for the 2011 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition. This year, the Calgary JCC is participating as a program partner with the specific goal of reaching out to the playwrights of Western Canada.
The winner receives a professionally acted and directed public workshop in a Miles Nadal JCC’s Between Stages Play Reading. The Miles Nadal JCC and the Calgary JCC will publicize the workshop with a national press release sent to major print and web media publications, professional theatre organizations and Canadian Jewish arts, education and community organizations.
Additional Prize: $1000 for the playwright. Donated by the ShaRna Foundation.
Both organizations (Miles Nadal JCC and Calgary JCC) seek to establish active relationships within the professional artistic community to support emerging Canadian artists and creation, to build bridges of understanding across cultures through the arts, and to assume a vital role in our country’s cultural community.
Since 1995, the MNjcc has produced over 40 theatrical readings in a “workshop” environment.
Between Stages has provided an opportunity for Canadian playwrights such as Dave Carley (A View from the Roof, 1995) and Misha Shulman (Martyrs Street 2010) to hear their work read by professional actors and receive feedback from a live audience. Three previous contest winners have been published and have hit the commercial stages: Einstein’s
Gift by Vern Thiessen, Sara’s Cave by Don Molnar and Yahrzeit by Alex Poch Goldin.
The 2010 winner is Corpus, by Darrah Teitel. Corpus will be presented as a Between Stages Reading in the Al Green Theatre.
2011 Submission guidelines:
• Playwrights must have a pseudonym on the front page of their play so that the jury does not recognize their name.
• Playwrights need not be Jewish but must be Canadian, or have a strong Canadian connection.
• Play content should have a Jewish focus, depicting some aspect of Jewish life.
• Plays should be no less than one hour and no more than two hours in length.
• For multiple printing convenience it is preferred that plays be sent via email as an attachment.
• Playwrights must include their real name and full contact information in a separate letter or in the body of an email. Plays that have been previously produced are ineligible.
• Plays that have been previously submitted to this competition over the last 5 years are
ineligible.
Please note: The Jury does not provide feedback on submitted plays.
Please send submissions to:
Esther Arbeid, Manager, Film and Theatre Programs
esthera@mnjcc.org
For further information please contact: Esther Arbeid 416-924-6211 x 606 esthera@mnjcc.org
www.mnjcc.org