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Submissions Accepted from Everywhere in the US
Shows from outside NY and NJ can only run if the
entire cast and crew are from New York City.
Submissions must be between 30 and 90 minutes long.
Thespis is not only a festival,
it’s a competition as well.
That means that there are prizes! The winner of the Best Play
award will receive a prize of $3,500. Best Actor, Best Actress
Best Director and Best Singer will each receive $500.
Best Musical Score $300
Best Original play, Stage Manager and Set Design Will each receive $200
30 MINUTES OR LONGER.
Our Ninght Festival Season
We are a group of playwrights who, after years of staging our
plays in NYc festivals, said: “Why don’t we create a festival
that includes everything we dreamt of having while being
part of others?”
The result is beyond our wildest expectations. In just a few
years, Thespsi has caught fire as the number of
submissions we receive continues to grow every year.
Is this sheer luck or an acknowledgment of what we offer?
Let’s find out:
Our participating playwrights receive:
1) Acknowledgement in the form of excellent prizes more than any other U.S. festival that we know of.
2) A 3 month-long festival that lets each production breathe,
with 45-minute set-up and breakdown times and prime
performance hours. And since we offer free tickets to all
shows for the cast and crew of every production,participants
have the opportunity to learn from the work of their artistic
colleagues.
3) Five hours of tech for every show, whether 30 or 90
minutes long. We believe that each play needs the same
amount of care no matter how long it is!
4) A 99-seat theater with beautiful, fixed red fabric seats,
and six places for wheelchairs.
5) 54 lights on our grid! Yes, you read right; 54 lights,
including colored gels and LED lights in order to let you
paint the moods and atmospheres of your scenes.
6) 2 projectors that covers a 14×21′ backstage and a 14×14′
stage left
7) An electric piano that all productions can use.
8) Fifty-five prop pieces, including varied pieces of real
furniture, that every production can use. Ninety percent of
our past participants have created their sets with our props.
No more double parking rental vans, while you rush to
unload props, trying to outsmart meters!
9) Enough storage space to allow you you to leave your
costumes and props in the theater during your run.
10) Winners selected by judges We don’t have popularity
prizes for bringing the largest audience. In our festival,
sometimes the barest production with the smallest
audience attendance wins first prize simply because it was
excellent!
11) A real large Dressing room with mirrors on 3 walls, a
sink with running water and a bathrom
12) No seasonal volunteers! One of our principle founding
members is always at the theater to support you during your
tech, box office times and performances
13) The opportunity to have your play professionally filmed
for a very affordable price.
Thespis is our dream festival created for you!
a festival created by playwrights
for playwrights!
- A 5-hour tech and the opening night on the same day so you have 7 hours in the theater to prepare…instead of being rushed in a tech that is merely the time of your show’s run time, you will have time to make it great rather than compromising your vision in a stressful rush.
- An incredible website on which all shows are listed by date, in alphabetical order and on an interactive calendar, and you will receive a dedicated page/post where you can upload all you need like a dedicated website, such as: SOUL OF A BLUE BUTTERFLY
- Amazing awards: you won’t find bigger prizes anywhere!
- A 3 months long festival that offers the opportunity for all cast you get that much inspiration in one place!
- Special guidance for playwrights staging their first show to help make their performances a success.
- Answers to all questions in a matter of hours and only from the festival’s founders. You’ll never wait days for an answer.
- Knowledgeable staff. We don’t fill our festival with seasonal volunteers. All those who work in the festival are dedicated and experienced members of our theater company, giving you real answers and a personal touch.
- A professional lighting and sound system-including 54 professional LED lights and color gels - that’s easy to use, even for non-techies.
- A free tutorial on how to use the light/sound/projection system, and expert technical guidance on how to paint the mood of your play.
- Storage for your props and set pieces during the entire run of your play. (This is an enormous time and money saver!)
- A large, varied collection of props to help stage your play 55. (https://thespisnytheaterfestival.com/props/). That means no more truck rentals and the risk of getting a ticket while you rush to unload your props. And we spare you the time and money it takes to search for & buy them. So, rather than use a few available rehearsal blocks (which we also provide) or black folding chairs that make every play look alike, we offer you real furniture & set pieces.
- Free box office management.
- The incredible opportunity to hire a professional videographer, photographer and tech directors who is part of the festival. They will cover your show at half of the usual price.
- Judges who decide on the winners. No Audience Choice Awards, which usually translates as ‘the show with the biggest audience wins’. Many of our past winners presented very small, intimate and ‘unglitzy’ productions.
- An unforgettable award ceremony at the end of the festival that honors your talent in front of your artistic colleagues, similar to Oscar night! (https://thespisnytheaterfestival.com/winners-2012/).
- Above all, you will be treated with great respect, support and a real spirit of friendship.
I have worked in a variety of NYC festivals and I have never worked with a more accommodating venue. The management made my cast and crew feel instantaneously comfortable. As artists we were given the support we needed to put on a well-polished production. I would highly recommend Venus/Adonis Theater Festival to artists of all ages.Madeleine Rose Parsigiam -
Director of Cal and Grey -Second place, 2013Venus/Adonis Theater Festival was an amazing opportunity for my cast and creative team to showcase our work at the professional level. As young artists, it can be difficult to find affordable space and supportive people to sponsor us as we work towards polishing our aesthetic. The festival team was an invaluable resource to us, being warm, friendly and full of good advice as we went through the festival process. As this was my very first time participating in a festival, I feel very lucky to have had the wonderful folks at Venus/Adonis to teach me the ropes. Moreover, the opportunity to extend our show into the Finals portion of the competition was incredibly exciting and made the entire team feel as if they had accomplished something at a much higher level. Venus/Adonis Theater Festival has been an incredible experience - bringing together many artists into one collaborative atmosphere. Thank you!Lily Raabe -
Director of Eaten Voices & Winner 2012I have been investing and producing in NYC theatre for over ten years. I have participated in financing two off Broadway productions of plays that I have written. I have produced numerous showcases, stage and table readings of over seven different plays. The experience was the same for each; frustration, disappointment and great financial loss. In absolute contrast, the Festival was a joy to participate in on every level. The group made everything easy to accomplish and bent over backwards to be certain that our production would have every chance of success, both artistically and financially. Several of the members of my creative team had participated in other well known festivals in NYC and agreed that the festival was several notches above the rest. I can only hope that in the future I can write other plays that will be accepted into this wonderfully nurturing home for a playwright and creative team.John Anastasi -
Transition
Thespis Theater Festival / Competition
wants to make staging your show a pleasure.
First-time writers are more than welcome!
We’ll help you with everything you need to
stage your play.
THESPIS THEATER FESTIVAL IS FOR
NON-UNION AND EQUITY SHOWCASE
Each applicant is fully responsible for
all elements of their production.
These include directing, casting, stage-managing.
