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SCRIPT DEPT
Play Submission Form
Short Term Goals
Press Release
Playwrights Unite With Gorilla Theatre
Gorilla Theatre's Playwright's Potluck, an informal dinner held Saturday, March 10 to kick off Gorilla Theatre's expanded involvement with local writers, was attended by twelve playwrights, including representation from The Playwright's Circle and Playwrights & Players, two longstanding playwriting-focused organizations. Gorilla Theatre is now ready to move ahead with plans that it hopes will consolidate and improve the climate for writers throughout Kansas City. Organizer Bryan Colley outlined Gorilla Theatre's short-term plans that are intended to realize three overall goals. Those goals are:
Consolidate the playwriting talent of Kansas City.
Improve the quality of local writing.
Get locally written plays produced.
Steps to realizing these goals currently include building a library of local plays, hosting workshops, classes, and writing groups, scheduling more staged readings throughout the year, broadcasting staged readings from Gorilla Theatre's website, publishing a compendium of local plays entitled The Plays of Kansas City to be distributed throughout the region, and setting up a pseudo-publishing house open to all local writers. Gorilla Theatre is also asking playwrights to instigate their own projects and to suggest ideas they feel will improve their craft and their profession. These steps are just the beginning of Gorilla Theatre's long-term commitment to local writers.
Gorilla Theatre is asking every writer in Kansas City – professional, amateur, hobbyist, or wannabe – to get involved with this project to make Kansas City a better place to write plays. Involvement is as simple as spreading the word and submitting your plays to Gorilla Theatre's database of local playwrights. We are asking every writer to send us a copy of each play they've written with a completed play submission form in order to start building our local writer database and to have your play included in our publication. Forms can be downloaded here or requested by phone or mail. Once the short-term goals are in place, Gorilla Theatre will move on to bigger and better plans. We welcome your suggestions and involvement in this process. Feel free to let us know what areas you think will best benefit a local writer.
THE PLAN
Gorilla Theatre's activities for this year to improve the local climate for writers is as follows:To consolidate our talent: Gather writers together for writing-oriented events. Create a database with contact information, biography, the plays they've written, and a summary of each play. Open communication channels so playwrights can exchange ideas.
To improve our writing: Get writers involved in writing groups and exchanging scripts. Host classes in playwriting. Build a library of plays and writing textbooks available to all writers.
To get plays produced: Encourage entries to Gorilla Theatre's Annual Playwriting Contest. Sponsor more staged readings of local plays throughout the year. Broadcast staged readings on our website. Host workshops with writers, directors, and actors. Publish a directory of locally written plays called The Plays of Kansas City.
On top of these goals, Gorilla Theater would like to establish a core group of writers whose job it is to help supervise this project and ensure its success. Gorilla Theatre is asking for extensive involvement with this core group and any interested writers should contact Gorilla Theatre.