One-Act Play Festival & Kanin Awards

John Cauble Short Play Award: Student playwrights are invited to submit one-act plays, with no restriction on subject matter, style, or intended audience. Please see the “One-Act Play Cover Sheet” on how to submit your play.
Once received by Region V, the plays will be “blinded” so no student name or university appears on the play and then sent to a panel of readers from outside our region.
The panel will select three scripts from those submitted. 
The playwrights whose scripts have been selected will be invited to the KCACTF Region V Festival in Overland Park, Kansas hosted by Johnson County Community College on January 17-23, 2010.

Once the playwrights have been notified that their play has been selected, and prior to the festival, the selected playwrights will work with their university to organize a concert reading of their play, which will then be presented at the festival.

The actors reading the script will be provided by the playwright’s school.  Because the invitation to come to the Festival will mean bringing additional students to the festival, all submitted plays must be accompanied by a letter from the playwright’s school’s department head acknowledging that the script is being submitted.

Selected plays will be presented at the regional festival as concert readings at music stands with no blocking. 
Following the readings, two of the plays will be selected as National Semi-finalists to be considered for an invitation to the national festival in Washington, D.C. in the spring.
[Note: While all three plays will be invited to hold a concert reading, the two that will be selected for consideration at the national level will not be judged by the concert reading but by a reading of the plays, which will be done by our festival respondents prior to the festival.]
One-Act plays invited to the Region V KCACTF One-Act Play Festival are eligible for the John Cauble Short Play Award, and as such, must follow certain guidelines.

1. The running time of a one-act play is under 60 minutes; when typed in standard format, a one-act play is approximately 15-45 (or so) pages in length; there is no intermission in a one-act play.
2. In order to participate in the John Cauble Short Play Award, a one-act MUST BE INVITED TO THE REGIONAL FESTIVAL—just because you have submitted your play to this festival does not mean that you are eligible for the Cauble.  It must be invited.
3. While not wanting to hamper anyone's creativity, recognize that a one-act play will undoubtedly be presented in an evening of one-act plays.  Therefore, elaborate settings, multiple characters, extravagant productions values, etc., could conceivably eliminate your play from consideration.
4. A monologue is not a one-act play.  A one-act play requires at least two actors in conflict.
5. The true success of a one-act play is reliant on the writer's ability to bring an audience through the same cathartic/entertainment experience that a full-length play accomplishes--i.e., sympathetic characters with recognizable needs encompassed within a resolvable dramatic conflict.
6. For some great examples of student plays that have succeeded in KCACTF, look at a copy of The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Presents: Award-Winning Plays from the Michael Kanin National Playwriting Program, Gary Garrison, ed. New York: Back Stage Books, 2006.  ISBN: 082308390X.  Find it at your library, or purchase a copy online.
7. For more information on the John Cauble Short Play Award, visit the KCACTF national website and follow this string:  www.kcactf.org; Students; Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards; John Cauble Short Play Award.

SUBMISSION: John Cauble entries are to be submitted to Richard Herman at rherman@ucmo.edu and must be received by October 26, 2009.  
Other Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards: In addition to the one-act festival, one-act plays may be submitted for certain Michael Kain Playwriting awards. Please note that you must meet the requirements of the awards you choose to enter and that you must enter your play in a specific Michael Kanin Award category. For a list of these awards, see the cover sheet for one act plays.

SUBMISSION: One-act play entries for Michael Kanin awards (other than the John Cauble award) are to be submitted to Richard Herman rherman@ucmo.edu AND the Kennedy Center National Office (GHENRY@KENNEDY-CENTER.ORG) and must be received by October 26, 2009.
Info for All One-Act Submissions

One-act plays are plays that are more than 10 pages long (12pt. font) but that are less than one hour in playing time.
Students may submit 1-2 one-act plays for any Michael Kanin awards for which they are eligible. Each script that is submitted must be accompanied by a cover sheet. Please, read the cover sheet carefully; it contains important submission instructions.
In order to make the evaluation process as easy as possible for our readers, we ask that scripts follow uniform formatting practices. See KCACTF Official Script Format for details.
Every effort will be made to handle submissions with care. However, neither KCACTF nor Region V will be responsible for misdirected or lost submissions. Within one week after you submit your script, you should receive an email confirmation stating that we have received it. If you do not receive confirmation, please contact Richard Herman rherman@ucmo.edu.
To be considered for the reading awards, one-act play entries must be from students attending schools that have entered either an Associate or Participating entry for the current year's Regional Festival, productions playing between January 1 and December 1, 2009.

For additional information on the John Cauble competition and award contact: Richard Herman, NPP Region V Chair rherman@ucmo.edu