Happy Holidays from the Dramatists Guild!
Our offices with be closed December 26, 2016 - January 2, 2017 in observance of the holiday. 
Member Perks
Welcome to Abbott
 
Abbott is Samuel French's new platform for play reading. Through Abbott, you can explore the largest digital collection of plays and musicals in the world on your mobile device, tablet or computer...anytime, anywhere. Whether reading for fun, for school, or for the stage - Abbott puts the world's best scripts at your fingertips.

Being an avid play reader is the mark of a true theatre lover. After all, the dramatists' work is at the center of our art form. You can often gauge a life in the theatre by the number of play scripts on a person's shelf, as varied and distinct as the rings of a great tree. Samuel French is proud to be a part of this great tradition and is thrilled to announce Abbott, the next evolution in play reading. Abbott is a digital app for reading plays and musicals on your mobile device and computer. Long an advocate for the ePlay format, Samuel French has developed this app to make reading digital versions of scripts even easier. We've been working all year on creating an intuitive and simple experience for reading on your phone or tablet. Abbott features recommendations and curated content, making it easier than ever to find your next script.

You can access Abbott for Free to preview ePlays and to read ePlays you have purchased. You can also subscribe to Abbott by selecting a subscription package below. Customers can also subscribe to Abbott for access to all Abbott titles, by selecting one of three Abbott subscriptions:

Guild Members get a free "Light Reader" subscription.
Redemption Instructions:
1    Visit www.SamuelFrench.com/register and create a free account. Once you have created your account, visit www.AbbottReader.com
 and login with your Samuel French username and password.
2    On the "Settings" tab in Abbott, select the LIGHT READER subscription. This will take you to the shopping cart to complete the account activation.
3    In the shopping cart, enter the code  DramatistsGuild2016 into the "promotions" box and click confirm. This will waive all charges and confirm your complimentary access.

Your subscription will now be activated and ready for use as soon as you log into Abbott. As a reminder, you can log in to Abbott 
here with your SamuelFrench.com
username and password.

To take Abbott with you on the go, you can download our app to your mobile device or tablet, by simply following this guide for mobile reading.
DG Institute
The application deadline for Spring 2017 is THIS FRIDAY, Dec 9, 2016. With two online courses, masterclasses taught by Tina Howe & Kirsten Childs, and an assortment of other programming, it's a semester you won't want to miss.
Submission Disclaimer: Please be advised that the inclusion or omission of a listing does not constitute approval or disapproval of that organization by the Guild, its Council, officers, employees, agents, or affiliates. Guild members are individually responsible for their submissions and should fully evaluate an opportunity before submitting their work. Please contact Business Affairs with any questions or if you need assistance in evaluating a particular opportunity.
Visit http://www.dramatistsguild.com/resourcedirectory/ for a complete listing of submission opportunities.
Resource Directory
Print On Demand!

When we moved our printed directory to an entirely online platform in 2014, we wanted to provide the most accurate information in the Resource Directory Online (RDO). The digital platform allows us to update information on an almost daily basis. However, over the past year, our members have often asked for us to offer a printed version. We understand that there's something familiar and comforting about flipping through a notebook and making notes in the margins, therefore we have designed this new 8½ x 11 inch spiral-bound, print-at-your-request edition. We'll still be keeping all updated listings on our website in the RDO, free of charge to members. 

Price: $20.00 Order Now:  http://bit.ly/dgresourcedirectory   

The Dramatists Guild Resource Directory is the only annual professional reference guide for working playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. It is the official reference for the Dramatists Guild and contains listings of theatres, playwriting opportunities, writer resources, programs in playwriting, and more. Additional featured content includes: 
  • Suggested Formats for Plays and Musicals
  • Business Affairs Representation FAQ
  • Business Affairs Copyright FAQ
  • DG Sample Contract Guide
  • Agency, From the Desk of Gary Garrison
  • The Road Less Traveled: Unconventional Paths to Production
  • The Art of the Synopsis
Over 1000 sold! Order yours today! 
Check out what's happening with fellow Dramatists Guild members all over the country! Our Regional Updates page is always updated with events from all regions.
Productions

Bad Kitty On Stage!  adapted by MIN KAHNG. JCC Rochester. Rochester, NY. From Jan 14, 2017 to Jan 22, 2017. Based on the Bad Kitty book series by Nick Bruel. Originally developed and produced by Bay Area Children's Theatre and Oregon Children's Theatre. LINK

Beware the Jabberwocky
 music by PAMELA MARSHALL, book and lyrics by CYNTHIA JOYCE CLAY. Storycrafter Studio. North Miami, FL. From Dec 08, 2016 to Dec 18, 2016. They say the Jabberwocky stuffs children in his sack and takes them to his lair to eat. Now he is following some carolers. Medieval carols arranged by award-winning composer Pamela Marshall are set to new lyrics in this ancient yet new winter holiday musical. LINK

Buffalo'ed 
by JEANNIE BARROGA. Kumu Kahua Theatre. Honolulu, HI. From Jan 26, 2017 to Feb 26, 2017. Drama, music, and dance. History onstage involving the Black American Buffalo S oldiers 1899, their Philippine Islands "tour", and germinating U.S. imperialism.  LINK

Christmas with Pat
 by NANCY GALL-CLAYTON. City Lit Theatre. Chicago, IL. Dec 13, 2016. Seven Plays in Seven Days, a one-night-only festival of short holiday-themed plays. Christmas with Pat is a comedy about a quirky family and a stranger who loses a shoe in the snow. LINK

Library Card
by DELVYN CASE, JR. University of Southern Maine. Portland, ME. Dec 01, 2016. A Syrian woman returns a book to a pop-up library in Aleppo. LINK

LYMAN
 by ANNE JOHNSTONBROWN. The Grove Theatre. Upland, CA. From Jan 20, 2017 to Jan 22, 2017. When a woman meets a homeless man she thinks she recognizes, she wonders if his life would have been different had he made different choices. Was he really a hero like he claims to have been? If he wasn't on the streets, where would he be?  LINK

Merry Gentlemen by SHEILA L. RINEAR. The Overtime Theater. San Antonio, TX. From Nov 25, 2016 to Dec 23, 2016. A contemporary riff on Dickens' Christmas CarolLINK

Rights of Passage
 by KITTY S DUBIN. Jewish Ensemble Theatre. West Bloomfield, MI. From Oct 20, 2016 to Nov 13, 2016. Equal parts comedy and drama, Rights of Passage consists of five short plays that explore the defining moments of life from, bris to shiva.

Searching for Romeo
 book, music and lyrics by BRIAN WARD SUTTON. Theatre Program at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Green Bay, WI. From Nov 17, 2016 to Nov 19, 2016. LINK

Sometimes, Hope
by DELVYN CASE, JR. University of Southern Maine. Portland, ME. Dec 01, 2016. A Nigerian girl, kept by Boko Haram for one year, returns to her village with a child. LINK

The Passage Or What Comes Of Searching In The Dark  book, music and lyrics by DAVID DARROW. 7th House Theater at The Guthrie. Minneapolis, MN. From Nov 18, 2016 to Dec 04, 2016. Albert Grissom has a problem. Well, two problems. He hasn't seen his father in three weeks and there's a monster living in his basement. With an original score, 7th House Theater's The Passage follows two children on a real-life adventure, stranger than anything they could have imagined. Book, music, and lyrics by David Darrow. LINK

Bride on the Rocks  by DAVID WIENER. Lama Theater Company. New York, NY. Dec 12, 2016. Bride on the Rocks will be included in the Lama Theater Company's Reading Series of New & Bold Short Plays, Poems and Songs. Lama's question for Dec 2016: "WHY HOPE?" LINK

KIM KARDASHIAN PRESENTS MAXIM GORKY'S THE LOWER DEPTHS
 by DANIEL DAMIANO. Drama Bookshop's Arthur Seelen Theatre. New York, NY. Dec 15, 2016. fandango 4 Art House continues their acclaimed EyeShot Reading Series with KIM KARDASHIAN PRESENTS MAXIM GORKY'S THE LOWER DEPTHS. A crisis of conscience prompts a famous reality and social media star to flee the comfort of her glitzy L.A. surroundings in pursuit of "depth" and soon finds herself in an abandoned warehouse in Detroit, where she is soon profoundly changed after seeing a local indie theatre company's adaptation of a classic Russian epic. LINK

The Subject
by CAROLYN KRAS. The Blank Theatre Living Room Series. Hollywood, CA . Dec 05, 2016. Princess Sophia's family is one of the most dysfunctional in history, with notoriously mad father King George III, drug-dependent mother Queen Charlotte, sex addict brother Ernest, and agoraphobic sister Augusta. A take on history that explores the contemporary crisis of sexual assault cover-ups. LINK

Friday Night Footlights

Sea Change by Maureen Barnes. Dec 9, 2016 at 8:00 PM. The climate is intense as seven rather edgy & empty lonely souls board the Sailboat Charter. None of them know what this sojourn on the sea might bring them. The musical follows the currents that carry them to their next port, or safe harbor, as they reveal dreams & demons.

I Want to Run Away With You
by Anne Hamilton. Dec 16, 2016 at 6:00 PM. An absurdist fable for our time. In an East Coast psychiatrist's office, secrets are revealed, hearts' desires are divulged, and fulfillment is offered by the most unexpected players.

The Shades
by Jordan Stovall. Dec 16, 2016 at 8:00 PM. A group of old friends reunite around a bonfire in the backyard in which they spent many of their formative years in together one last time before the house is sold, reminiscing on old times. As the night unfolds, the question arises: how great have the rifts between them become? RSVPs: LINK
All readings are held at the Dramatists Guild in the Mary Rodgers Room. 
1501 Broadway, Suite 710, New York, NY 10036.
 

Publications

Hungry Hungry Hippo Burgers  by 
SCOT WILLIAM P. SCOT WALKER. 
Best 5-Minute Plays for Teens. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, a division of Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group. This book will be published in January 2017. 

The Golden Goose
 by SCOT WILLIAM P. SCOT WALKER. Best 5-Minute Plays for Teens. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, a division of Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group. This will be published in January 2017. 

Awards

A Road to Nowhere  adapted by DAVID EARLE. 1st Place Winner - Best Screenplay Short. Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards. 3rd Place Winner - Best Short Screenplay. Mediterranean Film Festival Cannes. 
The Best Monologues For All Auditions  by GLENN ALTERMAN. Glenn Alterman has been contracted by Smith and Kraus publishers to write his 30th book (his 11th book of original monologues). When published, he will have 1000 published original monologues. LINK

Various Projects and Cultural / Educational Theatre Activities 
by DAVID WIENER. David Wiener is now working with and advising San Diego State University's Confucius Institute on new drama and theatre projects. He will be helping to expand CI's performing arts activities in a wide variety of ways, including relationships with teachers to build theatre arts programs at affiliated schools, writing scripts for stand-alone productions, and developing cultural exchange events and projects in theatre, drama, dance, and music.

New York City Center has launched a new musical theatre master class series called Front and Center: Learning from the Masters. The first class was led by Victoria Clark and focused on performance. The next class, focusing on composition, will be led by DG member Jeanine Tesori. There will be an online process in place for emerging composers and lyricists to submit their audition for Jeanine's class and from those applicants, she will select two participants to take the class. Tickets are also available to anyone who would like to join the audience and watch the class take place. 

The class will be Monday, January 23, 2017 from 6:30 - 7:45 pm at City Center (130 West 56th Street, 5th floor.) Tickets are $25.

Anyone who is interested in auditioning or in purchasing a seat to join the audience should, visit the following web address: LINK

Here is a quick description of the class:  Jeanine Tesori's composition master class is designed for emerging musical theatre composers and lyricists. Ms. Tesori will give the same assignment to two young writers: adapt a news article from the past year into a musical theater song, based deeply in character and story. She will examine song structure, musical embodiment of character, and the process from source to song. This workshop will provide participants and observers with a look into how stories from the world around us translate onto the stage and become musicalized. Audience members are also encouraged to bring an article that resonates with them to the class.