SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

We have received 25 entries.

Showcasing the Works of Six Female Playwrights from July 18-23, 2023.

Powerstories Theatre is thrilled to be hosting the third annual Voices of Women Theatre Festival as part of our 2023 Season. This year we will be doing a fully digital program because our theatre space is in transition. There is no fee to submit your play(s). The festival offers an artistic platform empowering, encouraging, and enabling diverse voices to inspire audiences worldwide through the gift of sharing strong voices and meaningful stories. Powerstories is proud to provide opportunities for artists and playwrights of all genres to share their original plays and musicals with our expanding community and audiences near and far. The Voices of Women Theatre Festival offers six plays available view-on-demand during the run of the festival highlighting humorous, heartbreaking, eye-opening, and conversation-starting plays and musicals.

ABOUT POWERSTORIES THEATRE & OUR FESTIVAL

The mission of Powerstories Theatre is to stage true stories to open minds and hearts and inspire action worldwide. The purpose is to create, present, and celebrate true stories to inspire courage and deepen our understanding of ourselves and others.

Powerstories Theatre is a professional non-equity theatre that produces true or historic-themed plays of social importance. For nearly 23 years, we have helped others know the value of true stories through published and original theatre, workshops, festivals, online true story platforms, and programs for youth. Each year we have produced four main stage productions in our 40-seat black box theatre, in addition to several Festivals and the Girlstories Leadership Theatre Program.

We are a member of Theatre Tampa Bay, a local organization that promotes and supports professional theatre in the Tampa Bay Area. In 2010, Powerstories won The Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, presented to Powerstories at the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama. Powerstories has also won the Spirit of Humanity Award from the DeBartolo Foundation, the Community Hero Award from The Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation, and The WEDU Arts and Culture Award.

The Powerstories Theatre philosophy is that every person, organization, corporation, and community has a “powerstory” to discover and share with others. The discovery and the telling of these stories create new success, invest our lives with more meaning, and connect us more vitally with others.

The festivals will be a fully digital view-on-demand event to empower, encourage, and enable diverse voices the opportunity to inspire audiences worldwide through the gift of sharing a vibrant theatrical production.

FOR PLAYWRIGHTS: A CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Your main goal is to produce a quality production. In your pre-recorded digital performance, we understand some of you will be presenting a staged reading, and some a fuller production. Each submitting playwright will be responsible for all costs related to casting, directing, and mounting the show to achieve the festival goals.

If selected, your play will be digitally presented over a period of seven days, view-on-demand.

The Playwright must be available for talkback Q&A during the course of the festival. The directors and cast are also highly encouraged to attend the Q&A.

Each entry will be numbered and time-stamped, and we will stop accepting plays/musicals after the 25^th submission.

What We Need

An artistic committee will review all of the 25 plays or musicals. Six selections will be announced by the end of January 2022 or earlier on social and by email notification. Submissions will be reviewed in consideration of the following criteria:

Your submission is congruent with the mission of Powerstories Theatre – staging true stories to open minds and hearts.
Your submission supports diversity and inclusion.
Your submission reflects overall quality and is a fully developed and well-written play
Strongest consideration will be given to new works and new playwrights.
Your submission is no shorter than 30 minutes and no longer than 120 minutes. Productions longer or shorter will not be eligible.
- Thirty-minute plays can be considered for Friday Night Shorts, a combination of two short plays.
The playwright is willing to have their play view-on-demand for the length of the festival and be available for a playwright talkback on Zoom.
The playwright is willing to help promote their production.
If selected, your play needs to be exclusively presented in conjunction with Powerstories Theatre and cannot be produced elsewhere during June through August 2023.

What We Provide

Powerstories Theatre will provide the following:

Consideration to be a main stage production (In 2023, Carolyn Gage’s submission from Voices of Women 2021 “In McClintock’s Corn” will be opening our season on the main stage.)
Marketing assistance including but not limited to our website with photo, bio, play synopsis and schedule, playwright interview to use for promoting your play, press release, and graphics for social media
Social media marketing
Logo design, if needed
An All-Access Festival Pass to enjoy your fellow playwrights’ works

Cash Prize Available

Due to Powerstories being unable to offer their stage during our transition (expanding and changing location) in 2023, there will be a $500 first and $300 second cash prize for the best prerecorded production. Winners will also receive a free paid twelve-month membership to Play Submission Helper, a website showcasing all national play/musical opportunities.

Winners will have accomplished the following:

A well-written engaging script
A quality production to include acting and directing
Generate successful ticket sales

The deadline for submissions to the Voices of Women Theatre Festival is December 15, 2022. If we receive 25 submissions before the deadline, we will put up notification that we have closed submissions.

UPDATE 10/24/22: SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and leadership of Powerstories Theatre, we look forward to receiving your submissions and presenting to the world your amazing stories.

Locations

Here’s where we will be bringing theatre to you next!

JANUARY 2025 – JANE: ABORTION AND THE UNDERGROUND
HCC Mainstage Ybor City
1411 E 11th Ave, Tampa
JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2025 – CADILLAC CREW
The Studio @620,
620 1st Ave S, Saint Petersburg
MARCH 2025 – VOICES OF WOMEN THEATRE FESTIVAL
USF College of the Arts,
School of Theatre and Dance,
3837 USF Holly Drive, Tampa
JULY 2025 – WITCH HUNT
Stageworks Theatre,
1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa
SEPTEMBER 2025 – ADA AND THE ENGINE
Stageworks Theatre,Save
1120 E Kennedy Blvd., Tampa

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Mailing address

PO Box 18021
Tampa, FL 33679