The Playwrights of Spring is an exciting Festival in its fourth year that solicits new scripts by playwrights in Ontario. Scripts are juried by three theatre professionals, one of whom is the Festival Dramaturge. From those scripts, the jurists (Readers) select the best two evenings of theatre that perform for one week each.

Playwrights of Spring wants to support and encourage new voices in theatre including writers of new plays; young theatre graduates looking to gain experience in their field; local youth who may be considering a career in the performing Arts and to local community theatre volunteers who want the opportunity to work with young trained professionals.

The Festival is sponsored by Theatre Aurora in its 52nd season of presenting the best of live theatre in an intimate theatre seating 154 patrons. It is located at 150 Henderson Drive in Aurora, just west of Yonge Street. The theatre is about thirty minutes by car from downtown Toronto and is easily reached by public transit from Finch subway station.

Electronic submissions are preferred and should be forwarded to playwrights@bellnet.ca

Hard copy scripts are to be forwarded to the following address and postmarked by September 1, 2009:

Theatre Aurora, Post Office Box 28532,

Aurora, Ontario, L4G 6S6

Please note: submitted scripts must NOT have any writer identification in the body of the work. Writer identification must be restricted to the cover page. Jurists see only the scripts with a number code.

Scripts must meet the following criteria:

• Writers must be resident in Ontario.
• Scripts must be new works. That means the scripts are unpublished and have not received a full production run anywhere. Scripts that have been entered in other Festivals remain eligible.
• Both one-act and full length plays will be considered.

(Please note- Jurists reserve the right to consider some plays submitted as full length plays to be an extended one acts or vice versa).

Musicals will not be considered: however, plays with music may be considered. The submitted works must not promote or condone actions that contravene anti-discrimination provisions of the Human Rights Code.

All scripts will be read by a professional jurist.

Submitted plays will have the author's identifying information replaced with a number code by an external volunteer.

The jurists will select the scripts that give the best two nights of theatre. Each Reader will submit a short list of recommendations to the other Readers and a final list will be submitted to the Festival Executive Committee.

This committee will be able to request an alternate recommendation if, and only if, the technical demands of a recommended play are excessive or if the play contains scenes that would be clearly offensive to a significant number of the theatre patrons in York Region.

>Ron Cameron-Lewis, Solange De Santis, >Annette Procunier

• Writers that have had their plays selected for production will be provided with the assistance of a professional dramaturge.
• Directors, designers and actors are engaged by the Festival to mount the productions and reporting to the Producer also engaged by the Festival.
• Applications will be sought from recent graduates of theatre programs (non-Equity) who want to gain experience in their field.
• Productions will run for one week each from May 5 to May 15, 2010.
• Show nights will consist of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and Saturday matinees for those weeks.
• Production costs will be met by the Festival.

• Local youth will work with the technical designers and apprentice with technical operators and production crew.
• Youth volunteers will also be given the opportunity to work backstage as part of the crew as well as for front of house and ushers.
• Designers will provide a two hour workshop on aspects of design and production including lighting design and operation, sound design and operation, set design and construction, costume design, and stage management.