Hello! Welcome to the humble beginnings of our 18th Annual Benchwarmers’ journey. At 18-years-old, Benchwarmers has grown up to be an upstanding pillar of the theatrical community while still retaining its youthful spirit.
We have one bench, an ensemble of actors, a director, and your 10-15 minute un-produced play that we can put on its feet. With these combined elements, we have Benchwarmers 2019. Below you will find the guidelines and requirements for submitting a play to Benchwarmers.
STEP ONE is pretty easy: Submit a play between May 1st and June 15th. If you submit outside those dates, we will not read your amazing work. You can submit your play on the Playhouse website, or you can go old school and submit through snail mail using the form on Page 4 of our Submission Guidelines. You can submit up to two plays, max. Please remove your name from the script(s). ALL PLAYS ARE BLIND REVIEWED. Like actors without a tech crew, we read these in the dark to ourselves and would hate to know who wrote what.
STEP TWO is the blind read. The Playhouse depends on the kindness of three judges to review all the works, ranking each play. The highest-ranked plays go on to become our beloved 18-year-old Benchwarmers.
STEP THREE is bringing all the wonders of your work to life. At this point we notify you that you are an official Benchwarmers 2019 playwright (ROCK ON!!!) and we begin casting and rehearsing. As the playwright, you are welcome to attend or not attend as many rehearsals as you like. Final Benchwarmers 2019 selections will be announced on August 1st.
STEP FOUR is the production at the Santa Fe Playhouse. Benchwarmers 2019 will run from November 7–24, 2019.
A few words of wisdom: Do not create elaborate sets or props for your play – we have a bench, that’s it, got it? Be creative with the bench. The bench, however, does not always need to play the part of bench. It can be a couch, a rollercoaster, a rocket ship, a giant banana … you get the idea. As for props, you are allowed a file box full of props. Again, be creative. Like a newly of-age adult getting carded at the gas station: these are limitations, but good ones. Appreciate them and work within the rules.
Be sure to read the guidelines in full before submitting. If you have any questions, always feel free to spam our inbox at artisticdirector@santafeplayhouse.org.
Categorised in: Benchwarmers