Sunday Submissions: Masrah Ensemble Playwriting Competition

The Masrah Ensemble is calling for submissions for their Playwriting Competition:

They write:

We invite playwrights writing in Arabic to submit their work for an anthology of contemporary theater texts.

With this initiative, Masrah Ensemble aims to contend with the difficulties of publishing plays, the decline of print publishing, and the social, economic, and political changes in the world and especially in the Arabic-speaking region in recent years. Amid these circumstances, there have emerged new generations of playwrights as well as novel approaches to writing.

A specialized and independent jury will select five texts. A sixth text pre-selected by Masrah Ensemble and a seventh pre-selected by the publisher will complete the collection. These seven play texts will be published in Arabic and then translated to and also published in English. In addition, each winning author will receive an honorarium of $1,000.

Arabic-language playwrights of any age residing anywhere may participate in this competition with texts written in colloquial or classical Arabic. Multiple submissions as well as submissions of previously published texts are not accepted.

To participate, send a PDF of your material to submissions@masrahensemble.org by June 1, 2021, with the first page displaying the text’s title and the playwright’s name and nationality. More information, as well as the call in Arabic, can be found at the ensemble’s website. The winners will be announced on September 15, 2021.