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Play Reading

Committee Chair:  James Clarke

Important Dates:

December 31, 2018
Last day to submit a play for the 2019-2020 Season.

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What We Are Looking For

Smithfield Little Theatre presents 4 plays each season beginning in the fall of each year.  Here are some general guidelines for each play.

Fall
Traditionally a musical, comedy, or drama presented in November.
8 weeks rehearsal time.

Christmas
Traditionally a simple Christmas themed play or music review presented mid December .
(rehearsal time for the Christmas play is limited by the fall show ending late November)
5-6 weeks rehearsal time.

Winter
Traditionally a comedy or drama presented late February.
6-7 weeks rehearsal time.

Spring
Traditionally a musical presented in May.
8 weeks rehearsal time.

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Board of Directors Suggested Plays for the 2019 - 2020 Season

Comedy
You Can't Take it With You
Hay Fever
Drop Dead Perfect
Noises Off
The Complete Works of Shakespear Abridge
Almost Maine
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
God of Carnage
It's Only A Play
Play On!
Dead Accounts
Christmas Belles

Musicals
Jesus Christ Superstar
Cinderella
Ring of Fire
Seussical
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Where's Charely?
Jekyll & Hyde
Honky Tonk Angels
Momma Mia!
Always… Patsy Cline

Dramas
Glass Menagerie
The Crucible
The Nance

Christmas
The Snow Queen
A Christmas Story
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol

If you are interested in directing play suggested by our Board of Directors or one of your own choosing, please read the following guidelines and fill out the submission information form below.

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SLT Play Submission Guidelines

Who May Submit?

Smithfield Little Theatre is both a community theater and a theater community. Our directors, like all volunteers, are unpaid. Therefore, we expect those who direct for us to have demonstrated both a commitment to theater and an understanding of how we operate.

• People who have directed for us before

• People who have expressed interest in directing
• Others whose names have been suggested to us as potential directors

New Directors

Box office intake accounts for most of our revenue. Each show is a financial risk we take seriously.  Just as important are our volunteers. As a director, you may have a brilliant vision and an amazing script but your “people skills” are going to determine whether or not those folks volunteering will come back and do shows with us (and see them as well).

Before you may direct at SLT, we urge you to -- at a minimum -- have served as a stage manager or assistant director on at least one production. We urge all would-be directors to get as much experience on how we do things here at SLT as possible. The better we know you...the more we have seen of your skills...the more likely the possibility you will be sitting in the director’s chair on opening night.

If you are new to directing, please be realistic. Think “small cast shows” with low tech. Shows that are big in scope (or complicated in intimacy...as many two person shows are) are best saved for you when you are more experienced and know who to enlist in your major project.

If two or more people submit the same script, it will be up to the Play Reading Committee to determine which, if any of them, is selected to direct the show based on director qualifications, scheduling, other scripts each has submitted and all the usual factors that go into director selection.

What to Submit

You are invited to submit up to three plays you would like to direct. To give the Play and Director Selection Committee the greatest flexibility possible--and yourself the greatest chance--please consider submitting plays of different styles, cast sizes, periods, etc.

Submitting a Musical

Because of their inherent scope and complications, first time directors should avoid submitting a musical. If you have the experience and desire to mount a production it is recommended that have a musical director lined up. Please include a tape or CD of the music for the Play Reading Committee.

Providing Scripts

Each prospective director must submit scripts at their own expense to the committee. Scripts will be returned to the submitter after the selection process.

In addition to scripts, please fill out and submit the online director/play submission form on the right side of this page.

After filling out he online play submission form you will be contacted by the chair of the Play Reading Committee to make arrangements to get these materials

Selection Process

All submissions will be reviewed by the Play and Director selection Committee. The committee is appointed from the ranks of SLT members and chosen to represent a broad range of theater experience, interests and tastes.  The recommendations of the reading committee will be reviewed by the full BOD and final selections will by made.  Those director/plays selected will be notified by the BOD.

The committee will:

• Read the scripts
• Look closely at director needs and schedules
• Select a balanced season of comedies, dramas and musicals for submission to our Board of Directors.

In the process, committee members may contact you with questions or to set up an interview about your plays, schedule or other issues. But they may not, so it is in your best interest to make sure you fill out the forms as completely as possible. This is your chance to sell your show...and yourself, as the director.

Choosing a Script

Consider our Audiences

SLT attracts a diverse audience. While our “core” patrons -- those who consistently buy season tickets and attend most plays -- is made up of seniors, we have begun to draw a younger, more diverse group that, depending on the play, might include families with younger children, well-off professionals looking for quality entertainment and “niche” audiences who may not attend our theater regularly but will turn out for a specific play that appeals to their own interests.

An important question to keep in mind is, “Who will want to come and see this?” By all means, submit that quirky play that you love, but consider submitting plays with a broad appeal as well. We may do one o offbeat show a year, but  remember...SLT survives on its box office. We must craft a seasons that draws enough people to pay the bills.

Consider our Talent Pool

Actors come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, sexes, ages and hair color. The committee tries hard to select a slate of plays which have plenty of roles for men and women, young and old, veteran and novice. Strive for balance of roles. If you submit a play with twenty male roles, you might consider submitting a play with twenty female
roles as well. Think of the talent in the community and ask yourself, “Do we have the folks to do this?”  Sometimes the right play will draw people in. Again, the key is to offer the committee as many options as you can.

Submit Plays you Love

Sometimes, in an effort to submit “more choices” for the committee, directors will submit one play they love and then throw in two they’re not crazy about just to fill out the “three-play” guideline. What is true for auditioning for plays is doubly true for submitting to direct them...you wouldn’t put down that you were willing to take any role if it wasn’t true...don’t commit yourself to directing a play that doesn’t turn you on. If you are in the position of being “in love” with only one play, then be true to your vision and submit that one play. But remember, the committee may not love it the way you do or it may not be a “fit” for the season. Giving them options of different plays that you would love to direct increases the likelihood that you will be directing next season.

If you have any questions or need further information please fill out the contract form at the top of the page.  Someone from the play reading committee will contact you as soon as possible.

Please click the Submit button only once.

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