Powerstories Theatre is thrilled to be hosting the Voices Playwriting Festivals again this year as part of our 2022 Season. There is no fee to submit your play(s). Last year’s Voices of Truth and Voices of Women Theatre Festivals greatly expanded our playwright’s audience and creative network throughout the United States and beyond. The two festivals presented over 30 plays by up-and-coming new playwrights with vibrant voices and stories. During a difficult time in our history, the stories reminded us we have much to learn by listening to each other, and our similarities outweigh our differences.
The Voices of Truth and the Voices of Women Theatre Festivals are two different festivals produced by Powerstories Theatre. The festivals offer 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 to our expanding community and audiences near and far. Both festivals will offer seven evenings each of performances highlighting humorous, heartbreaking, eye-opening, and conversation-starting plays and musicals.
Powerstories offers an artistic platform empowering, encouraging, and enabling diverse voices to inspire audiences worldwide through the gift of sharing strong voices and meaningful stories. We provide opportunities for artists and playwrights of all genres to share their original plays and musicals. This is showcased in two weekends, highlighting eye-opening, conversation-starting, humorous, heartbreaking, true, and fictionalized plays and musicals.
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 understanding of ourselves and others.
Powerstories Theatre is a professional non-equity theatre that produces true or historic themed plays of social importance. For 21 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 produce 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.
VOICES of TRUTH & VOICES of WOMEN THEATRE FESTIVALS
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.
Currently, in our Country’s history, we feel compelled to bring about these Festivals to increase awareness and bring to light issues, challenges, concerns, and difficulties significant to people throughout the world. We support courage and confidence, deepen appreciation for diversity, and strengthen the bonds between people.
The festivals will be a combination of in-house theatre and digital productions, all live-streamed to empower, encourage, and enable diverse voices the opportunity to inspire audiences worldwide through the gift of sharing a vibrant theatrical production. We will be showcasing seven voices with each festival, highlighting eye-opening, conversation-starting, real-life, humorous, heartbreaking plays and musicals.
All the selected plays will be considered for possible mainstage production at Powerstories Theatre for the next or upcoming seasons.
Your main goal is to produce a quality production. We understand some of you will be presenting a staged reading, some a fuller production. Your play can be a full production with a minimal set or a staged reading. Each submitting playwright will be responsible for all costs related to casting, directing, and mounting the show to achieve the festival goals. All proceeds from ticket sales will go to Powerstories Theatre.
If selected, your play will be presented on a given night during the festival, followed by a live Playwright talkback. Additionally, your play will be part of our Encore Program, where viewers can watch your play after its initial debut over 48 hours. Each submitting playwright will be responsible for DIY self-producing: casting, directing, and mounting the show.
Due to COVID-19, artists will be asked on their application to choose one of the following methods to produce their work:
For both options, the Playwright must be available for post-show talkback Q&A after the performance. The directors and cast are also highly encouraged to attend the Q&A.
Each submission will be time-stamped, and you may submit to one or both festivals by choosing your preferences in the submission form.
An artistic committee will review all plays and proposals. Selections will be announced by mid-January 2022 or earlier on social and by email notification. Submissions will be reviewed in consideration of the following criteria:
Powerstories Theatre will provide the following:
(The submission window for the Voices of Women Theatre Festival may re-open at a later date).
If selected, playwrights will receive more detailed technical information and be responsible for attending a mandatory orientation session via a zoom presentation.
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.
Here’s where we will be bringing theatre to you next!
PO Box 18021
Tampa, FL 33679
