Application Deadline: August 15th 2016
The British Council Annual Playwriting Competition is seeking submissions from playwrights for plays to be produced at the Lagos Theatre Festival 2017 with the theme ‘Rhythm of the City’. Lagos Theatre Festival (LTF) is the largest performing arts festival in Nigeria and indeed West Africa. It was created to promote theatre in unconventional spaces. Through the festival, theatre makers and producers are supported to expand their practice beyond traditional theatre spaces by creating work that responds to any given space. LTF has commissioned 8 plays since 2014 through similar playwriting competitions.
In 2017, the Lagos Theatre Festival theme is ‘Rhythm of the City’ and the festival will run from Tuesday 28 February to 05 March 2017 in various venues around Lagos with two festival hubs, one each on the island and mainland.
The theme ‘Rhythm of the City’ was selected to capture through performance, the sounds of Lagos expressed in the comings and goings, the repetitive activities and the music of the city. We hope to see work created that reflects specific auditory perspectives like noises, rhythm, beats, language, etc. from a range of socio economic and geographic groupings across Lagos.
GUIDELINES
- Plays must be written for the stage for more than one actor but not more than 6 actors with a running time of between 45 and 60 minutes.
- By entering the competition the writer affirms that their entry is original and they have sole rights to all matters contained within the play.
- Please number all pages
- The first page of the script should include a completed play synopsis of no more than 100 words, a list of characters, a description of setting and the contact details of the writer i.e name, phone number, physical address and email address.
- The LTF/British Council decision is final.
- The competition is open to all, but plays must be written in English and unpublished for the duration of the competition.
- Play submissions that do not comply with all competition rules will be disqualified.
Conditions
- 10 shortlisted playwrights will be selected to attend a playwriting workshop facilitated by Prof Ahmed Yerima
- Attendance of the workshop on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 August is mandatory to be considered for the prize.
- At the workshop, the scripts will be read and the playwrights assessed.
- Following the workshop, the 10 shortlisted playwrights will submit the final draft of the script along with a signed release form to allow the plays to be commissioned by the festival.
- Up to 5 plays will be selected following the workshop, to be produced for the festival
- Each selected playwright will receive a cash prize of N100, 000.
TIMELINES
- Closing date for applications is by midnight on 15 August 2016
- Following the workshop, shortlisted playwrights will submit final scripts by 12 September 2016
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