04/17/2025
An opportunity for playwrights …
2026 Short Play Festival Call for Scripts
https://bit.ly/2026NVShortPlayCallForScripts
Theme:
Merciless Indian Savages: A Native Perspective about the Declaration of Independence and U.S. History.
DEADLINE: June 16, 2025
With the upcoming 250th anniversary of 1776 and the Declaration of Independence, it is only appropriate that our theme for the 16th Annual Short Play Festival addresses this historical event.
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal..."
Many Americans learned the preamble of the Declaration of Independence while in elementary school and proudly recited it from memory. However, most are unaware that in this same document about the importance of equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the following phrase: “Merciless Indian Savages.”
Native Playwrights, tell us about what this country does (or does not) teach about the original Inhabitants. This is your opportunity to create your own "Idiot's Guide to Native American History" through storytelling. Correct wrongs, offer counter-narratives, share crazy encounters you have had with the US and Canada’s warped sense of Native people, or just poke fun at all the misinformation about our people. We are not asking you to be merciless or savage, but we do ask that you be unapologetically Native!
Selected short plays will be performed in an afternoon of staged readings, where playwrights have a chance to win the Thomas Studie Gadugi Audience Prize of $500 and the Von Marie Atchley Playwright Award of $1,000.
We ask that each play be 10 minutes in length or shorter. From our experience and the recorded history of past winners, the audiences and judges prefer comedies! Fresh, surprising perspectives are welcome. Originality is key!!
