Once again, we at PDXPlaywrights bristle with excitement about presenting the “festival within the festival” at Portland’s Fertile Ground Festival of New Works. We invite you to participate. The festival dates are Jan. 19 through Jan. 29, 2017. Collaborating with PDXP offers an economical way to share your work with an appreciative audience. Please carefully read guidelines below for more information, and respond no later than Sept. 23.
For casting information, please check this page periodically.
Please note: Our “Daisy Dukes Shorts Night 2017” operates through invitations to submit. Questions may be directed to pdxpproducer@gmail.com. But our regular festival co-production process is in full swing! Please see below …
DOWNLOAD 2017 PDXPlaywrights Fertile Ground Guidelines (a printable form of the same guidelines appearing below)
DOWNLOAD 2017 PDXPlaywrights Fertile Ground Registration
Co-Produce Your Play with PDXPlaywrights
Fertile Ground 2017
Questions? Contact Miriam Feder: pdxpproducer@gmail.com
Cost (up front) to participate: $150
PDXP (also known as PDXPlaywrights) provides you with:
• registration with the 2017 Fertile Ground Festival of New Works
• inclusion in the glossy program created and distributed by Fertile Ground (also dubbed FG)
• stage time at a great venue—Hipbone Studio
• participation in call for resumes/head shots through PDX Backstage
• tech rehearsal at Hipbone Studio (date to be determined by PDXPlaywrights)
• set-up and management of online ticketing via BoxOfficeTickets.com
• day-of-show: emcee, box office staff, house management and techie
Full payment and registration must be received by noon Sept. 23, 2016. Make checks out to producer — “Miriam Feder” — and send them to her directly:
Miriam Feder
2804 NE 34th Ave.
Portland, OR 97212
PDXP’s Role as your Co-Producer
1. Participation
Participation at Fertile Ground under PDXP’s umbrella is at PDXP’s discretion. Priority will be given first to playwrights who have had a play read at PDXP during the past year, second to playwrights who have been in past PDXP programs at Fertile Ground, lastly to playwrights who have not previously worked with PDXPlaywrights. PDXP selects and schedules plays from registrations and its decision is final.
2. Communication regarding Fertile Ground
All questions relating to this project should be addressed to Miriam Feder at pdxpproducer@gmail.com. Do NOT independently contact Fertile Ground, Artists Rep or the venue where our plays are presented. Do not direct other people to the venue phone number.
3. Scheduling and Grouping plays
PDXP creates the show schedule. If certain performance times are impossible for you, please write this information on your registration form. PDXP may group plays in shared time slots at its discretion.
4. Venue
We produce at Hipbone Studio. We are a renter there—be respectful of this relationship and the Hipbone space and its contents. DO NOT USE TAPE TO SPIKE THE FLOOR. REMOVE YOUR STUFF at the end.
We will have a standard set up (for lights and seating) that will be used for all shows. LIGHTS WILL NOT BE REFOCUSED FOR YOUR SHOW. Simple sound is available using a computer, pod or CD. We offer a technician for tech rehearsal and day-of-show.
5. Termination
We reserve the right to terminate our relationship with any playwright who fails to meet deadlines or be responsive to email communications or who doesn’t adhere to these guidelines.
Playwright Responsibilities
6. Payment
Registration payment must be received by PDXP on or before noon Sept. 23, 2016.
7. Timing and description
Give an accurate estimate of your play’s RUNTIME. This runtime should not change appreciably after your information has been submitted. Please describe your show on the registration form in a way that will interest and inform your potential audience in the FG Brochure.
8. Playwright photo
Please submit a digital photograph of yourself for use on promotional materials at the time of your registration to pdxpproducer@gmail.com Email subject line should be: playwright last name, first name
9. Casting
The playwright is responsible for finding a director, actors, and rehearsal space. PDXP can include your actor requirements to a call for headshots and resumes on PDX backstage. Fill out the casting info on the registration sheet if you want to participate in that call. We do not provide a group audition.
10. Rehearsal
PDXP does not provide any rehearsal space. Playwrights may be able to rent rehearsal space from Jeff Burke at Hipbone subject to his availability. Please be considerate of our relationship with Jeff and the space. This year for the first time PDXP plans to offer a tech rehearsal.
11. Paying actors and director
PDXP encourages playwrights to pay the director and actors. You set the amount. NOTE: It can take as much as a five weeks after performance for proceeds from ticket sales to become available.
12. Promotion
Your play description on the registration form will appear in the Fertile Ground program. It may be edited. PDXP promotes shows via social media. Please participate in that promotion for your work and the other shows staged by PDXP (i.e. share and comment.) Playwrights need to promote their own show. A full house is good for your bottom line, for your experience and for your creative team. Please encourage all who are working with you to promote your play and also to participate in our Facebook exchanges.
13. Programs
Playwrights usually create a program for their audience and playwrights sharing a time slot usually create a program for their shows together at shared expense.
14. Volunteering
We depend on one another’s help to make this program happen. You are required to volunteer for at least one other 2-hour time-slot. If you have technical or management skills to volunteer, please let Miriam know.
Ticket Sales
15. All PDXP Tickets are priced at $10
(As a practical matter, this may limit your ability to cast AEA actors.)
16. Group shows
If two or more plays share a time slot, PDXP will split ticket revenue equally between playwrights, who may adjust the take between themselves as desired.
17. FG Passholders
Fertile Ground requires that a portion of tickets be reserved for FG passholders. PDXP sets aside 20 tickets for each event for passholders and reserves the right to change this number.
18. Free to playwrights
All playwrights who are showing plays under PDXP’s umbrella have the right to attend the show of any other playwright in our program for free.
19. No comps
No other complimentary tickets are available when more than one playwright is featured in an event.
20. Capacity
Our primary venue, Hipbone Studio, has seating for 85.
21. Revenues
Revenue from ticket sales will be sent to playwrights by check by mail within one month after the end of Fertile Ground—think the end of February 2017. You can expect PDXP to retain between $25 and $35 from revenues about to be disbursed to playwrights. The exact number isn’t set yet.
22. No guarantee
PDXP makes no guarantee that playwrights will recoup expenses.
As a member of the Portland Area Theater Alliance and a champion of play development, we thank you for your interest in working with PDXPlaywrights to participate in the Fertile Ground Festival of New Works!