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Yale Drama Series: Award-Winners, Competition Rules and Submission Instructions

NEWS


2011 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Shannon Murdoch's New Light Shine

For his first selection as judge, award-winning playright John Guare has announced the
2011 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.

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John Guare to serve as new judge for Yale Drama Series

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ABOUT THE SERIES

Yale University Press and Yale Repertory Theatre, are partners in a new venture to support emerging playwrights. They jointly sponsor The Yale Drama Series, a major new playwriting competition. The winner of the annual competition will be awarded the David C. Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of his/her manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Rep. The Yale Drama Series and David C. Horn Prize are funded by generous support from the David Charles Horn Foundation.

The judge for 2011-2013 will be Tony Award-winning playwright John Guare. Author of such renowned plays as House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body, John Guare won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Two Gentlemen of Verona and also wrote the book for the musical Sweet Smell of Success. In the fall of 2010, Mr. Guare's play, A Free Man of Color, was produced by Lincoln Center Theater in a production directed by George C. Wolfe. Future judges of the series will include both distinguished playwrights and directors.

Submissions for the 2012 Competition must be postmarked no earlier than June 1 and no later than August 15, 2011. There is no application form. See Guidelines for Submission below for precise information regarding your entry.


PAST WINNERS


2010 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Virginia Grise's blu

In his second year as contest judge, playwright David Hare has announced the
2010 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.

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2009 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's Lidless

Award-winning playwright David Hare has announced the
2009 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.

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2008 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Neil Wechsler's Grenadine

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee has announced the
2008 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.

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2007 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
John Austin Connolly’s The Boys from Siam

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee announced his selection for the first winner of The Yale Drama Series competition at a ceremony held in the Lincoln Center on Thursday, April 26.

Listen in to the ceremony.
listen

John Austin Connolly, in attendance at the ceremony, is an Irish citizen and retired clinical psychologist who resides in Dublin.  The Boys from Siam was selected by Edward Albee from more than 500 submissions.  The play is based loosely on the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), the original so-called “Siamese twins” joined at the sternum.  Much of the action of the play takes place on the day of the twins’ deaths. In addition, Edward Albee announced that The Secret Agenda of Trees, by Colin McKenna, and Open Rehearsal, by Lazarre Seymour Simckes, had been chosen as runners up for the 2007 competition.

As the winner of the 2007 competition, John Austin Connolly was awarded the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of The Boys from Siam by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Rep.


COMPETITION RULES

Yale University Press and Yale Repertory Theatre are seeking submissions for a major new playwriting competition, The Yale Drama Series. The winner of this annual competition will be awarded the David C. Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of his/her manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Rep. The winning play will be selected by series judge John Guare.

There is no application form or entry fee. Please follow these guidelines in preparing your manuscript:

1. This contest is restricted to plays in the English language, though submissions are accepted worldwide.

2. Submissions must be original, unpublished full-length plays written in English. Submissions must be original, full-length plays. Translations, musicals, and children’s plays are not accepted. The Yale Drama Series is intended to support emerging playwrights. Playwrights may win the competition only once.

3. Plays that have had professional productions are not eligible.

4. The manuscript must begin with a title page that shows the play’s title and your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address (if you have one), and page count; a second title page which lists the title of the play only; a list of characters; a list of acts and scenes; and (if applicable) a list of acknowledgments.

5. Plays must be typed/word-processed, numbered and in standard professional play format. A brief biography may appear at the end of the manuscript, but is not required.

6. Do not bind or staple the manuscript.

7. Playwrights may submit only one manuscript per each year.

Send the manuscript to Yale Drama Series, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040.

Submissions for the 2012 competition must be postmarked no earlier than June 1, and no later than August 15, 2011.

Do not send the only copy of your work. Manuscripts cannot be returned after the competition. If you wish receipt of your manuscript to be acknowledged, please include a stamped, self-addressed postcard. If you wish to be informed by June 2012 of the contest results, please include an email address on your title page.

CONTACT US

For more information regarding the Yale Drama Series please write to us at:

Yale Drama Series
P.O. Box 209040
New Haven, CT
06520-9040

or email us at yaledramaseries@yale.edu