Troupe Texas

... and we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales ... King Lear (V.3.9)

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Submissions to Troupe Texas

Troupe Texas is a producing company that welcomes submissions of new scripts for our regular Production Series and for our bi-weekly New Works Forum.  We are particularly interested in new plays that fit our active storytelling production style, which focuses on performers using minimal scenery and props.  We prefer scripts that suit our core company—four to six performers—, but will consider scripts requiring a larger number of performers.  We prefer to develop new plays through a series of presentation levels:  a concert reading, a staged reading, a workshop production, and a full production.

With your submission, please include a one-page information or pitch sheet.  On this sheet indicate whether you are submitting the work for the Production Series or for the New Works Forum.  (All plays that we select for production consideration will be given a preliminary public reading.)  List the title of the work, the type of work, the author, a short “log line” description of about 15 words, and a short synopsis of 50 - 125 words.  If your work is addressed to a specific audience (children, teen, adult) indicate in the “type of work” line: “a short story for children” or “a stage play with adult language” etc.  Use the same typeface for this sheet as you use for the text of your submission. A sample information sheet is available here.

For stage, screen, and radio scripts, a specialized scriptwriting program is highly recommended; freeware programs such as Page2 Stage® (www.page2stage.com) or Celtx (www.celtx.com) can be downloaded from the internet.  The British Broadcasting Company Writers Room offers free templates for use with MS Word at www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/scriptsmart_gold.shtml.  If you write extensively and professionally, consider programs such as Final Draft®, Movie Magic Screenwriter®, etc.  Basic .doc templates (for use with MS Word or openoffice.org word processing programs) for short fiction, poetry, and stage and scripts are available at this site.  Be sure to number your pages, starting with numbers on page 2 of the text; don’t number your information sheet, cover sheet, or the first page of text). Please do not include photos or graphics in or your submissions.

Please submit your manuscripts as .pdf files.  As word processing files sometimes interact differently with printers, computers, and different versions of software, there are often differences in formatting that result in “dangling” character names in scripts and other unintended format changes.  We ask that you submit your work as .pdf files, so that what we see is what you intended.  If your word processing program doesn’t include a pdf converter, several freeware programs are available, such as PDF Creator at sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/.

Submit your manuscripts by e-mail to submissions@troupetexas.org. We review submissions based on the information included on the cover sheet. Our readers initially scan submissions for format and accuracy. If a submission requires changes in formatting, proofreading, etc. we will e-mail you to ask that you make the necessary changes and re-submit your manuscript.

The New Works Forum usually presents a program of shorter works, with occasional “feature” readings of longer works.  Submitted manuscripts will be selected for presentation based on their subject matter and length.  As longer works necessarily fall into the feature category, we have fewer opportunities to present longer works. We suggest that you initially submit shorter pieces that can be presented in 15 minutes or less. Writers whose short works receive favorable responses will be given priority consideration for feature presentations.

While authors are always welcome to our New Works Forum presentations and can benefit from the audience talkback sessions, we realize that a trip to San Marcos isn’t possible for many writers whose works are chosen for readings.  Authors who can not attend will receive notes from the talkback sessions that follow each presentation, and will be given a written coverage/critique summary based on our readers and audience responses to the work.

Writer’s fees aren’t offered for New Works Forum presentations. However, as we find sponsors for our programs, we will award prizes and honoraria based on audience responses.

Short Prose Fiction (Short Stories) Submissions:
Prose fiction submissions should be in standard short fiction manuscript format. Please follow the guidelines given here (.doc; .pdf).

Poetry Submissions:
Poetry submissions should be in standard poetry manuscript format. Please follow the guidelines given here (.doc; .pdf).

Stage Script Submissions:
Stage script submissions should be in standard American stage manuscript format. Please follow the  guidelines given here (.doc; .pdf).
Radio/Ear Play Script Submissions:
Radio and ear play submissions should be in an easily read manuscript format; although there is not a generally accepted standard, please follow the guidelines given here (.doc; .pdf).

Motion Picture and TV Script Submissions:
As motion picture and TV plays depend to a great extent on action and visual effects, readings are not usually the best forum for getting initial reactions. If your play is dialogue driven and descriptions are concise, you man submit you script for evaluation. Please follow the guidelines given here (.doc; .pdf).