The Jasper Project announces the fourth cycle of its Play Right Series, a collaboration between area theatre artists and Jasper Community Producers—or theater aficionados, supporters and even newcomers. The project will culminate in summer 2024 with the staged reading of a brand-new South Carolina play. 
More about this project →

Submitting A Play

The play submission window is now open. 

  • Playwrights must be natives or residents of South Carolina. 

  • The winning playwright must be present for development sessions with Community Producers in Columbia during the summer, 2024 (specific dates to be determined later), and must agree to offer program credit to The Jasper Project at any subsequent productions or publications.

  • Plays may address any topic, using language appropriate to the subject matter; we are not, however, considering musicals or children’s plays. 

  • Submissions must be one-act plays, 45-75 minutes in length, typed according to industry-standard format (see our Sample Format). Collections of shorter revue sketches on a common theme will be considered.

  • Please include, as a cover sheet, a one-page bio of the playwright and description of the play, including cast size and any unusual technical demands, bearing in mind that smaller and fewer are usually preferable.

  • One submission per playwright, please.

  • Please submit your play no later than January 31, 2024 to playrightseries@jasperproject.org

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Play Selection

When the submission window closes on January 31, 2024, the Play Right Series committee will read and select a play for development through the spring and summer.  “Development,” in this case, means round-table readings with paid actors and directors and attended by Community Producers and Professional Others, followed in the summer by rehearsals and presentation at Trustus Theatre’s Side Door stage. 

The process will be facilitated by Jasper Community Producers—audience members invested in the development process and supportive of the state’s literary talent. In exchange for a modest financial contribution Jasper Community Producers will be offered insider views of the steps and processes inherent in creating theatrical art by attending readings and rehearsals, and informative talks and presentations including conversations with the actors, director, playwright, stage manager, costumer, and sound and lighting designer. The result: Community Producers learn about the extensive process of producing a play and become invested personally in the production and success of the play and its cast and crew, thereby becoming diplomats of theatre arts.

 

Steering Committee

Featured
Jon Tuttle
Jon Tuttle

Jon is Professor of English and Director of University Honors at Francis Marion University, author of THE TRUSTUS COLLECTION (Muddy Ford Press, 2019), which includes six of his plays that premiered at Columbia’s Trustus Theatre, and a recipient of the South Carolina Governor’s Award in the Humanities.

Cindi Boiter
Cindi Boiter

Cindi is the founder and executive director of the Jasper Project and the editor of Jasper Magazine. Having seen hundreds of plays throughout her life she knows just enough about the theatrical arts to bring in the big guns when it comes to a project like the Play Right Series, and she thanks them for generously sharing their talents with Jasper.