Looking for your scripts!

Scotty

Tue, Feb 25 2014, 8:10 pm

Have a new or old script for a play, skit, or cantata lurking on your hard drive? Why not give it exposure to principals, camps, and production heads in the U.S.? As you may have heard, we are currently putting together a play catalogue for the 2014-2015 season, and are actively seeking submissions!

How Does It Work? There's no cost, no fees, no hidden anything. You send the script, we review it and archive it (under your name, of course). If any schools or camps are interested in your script, we charge THEM a (small) commission and put them in contact with you before they get the whole script. You are not charged anything. If you need help negotiating a contract with your client, we may be able to help you with that as well. We're currently in the more nascent stages of the database, but our ultimate goal is to have 300-600 scripts, in English and perhaps Yiddish, categorized with subject tags so that requests can be run through our system easily. Even while we are building the system, however, script writers should know that we get tens of calls each winter and summer season for plays, and would love to be the "shadchan" for yours!
Additionally, there is a lot of misunderstanding that goes on each year in regard to who "owns" scripts: the original author, or the client who "rewrote" it? We hope to be able to provide mediating services so that each party is satisfied with their contract BEFORE issues like this arise. Our dream is to provide a clearinghouse that will allow principals/directors AND authors alike to easily sell and buy scripts, without all the (pardon the pun) drama.

What & How To Submit: Scripts should be suitable for a Bais Yaakov audience, can be in English or Yiddish, and must be the property of the author. (If you've written it on commission for a school or another entity, you must get signed permission for you from that school, camp, or entity to be the sole seller of the work, and inform us of it. Alternately, if the entity that hired you wants to retain partial rights, get that in writing too, and we'll attach that information to your jointly-owned script.)

Please add a header with your name, email address, and either phone or home address to your script (a header will impose the information on each sheet).

If the script has been performed before, please include a listing of venue/s where it has been used in the email.

Please include a short synopsis of your play. Ideally, this blurb should include the setting, one or two sentences encapsulating the basic plotline, and the theme or moral. Please also include the number of significant (ie, more than 5-15 lines) parts in the play. (This helps us match smaller-cast plays to smaller schools or groups.)

Optionally, you may include a list of keywords that define your storyline, such as "historical fiction", "contemporary", "friendship", "Becoming BT", "Humor", "Concert", "WWII" etc.
If the script is old enough to have been typeset but not typed on file, please contact us about mailing us a hard copy so we can digitize it.

Email: scripts (at) chilazonpress.com

Looking forward to working with you!

All the best,
Etka Gitel Schwartz