Funding the Holy Grail

[lillibet]

I'm tossing around the idea of offering a $1,000 prize for a full-length original comedy script that a) features female characters prominently and b) doesn't suck. Actually, I'd probably throw in a few more criteria while I'm at it--minimal set, modern dress...what else?

Does this seem like a ludicrous idea? Would you want to be on the reading committee? Is that enough money? What I'd want to get for it are the rights to perform it at T@F and sell the DVDs without further royalty payments. That's about it.

Does this seem like a totally foolish idea?

Comments

[labingi]

I think it's a fantastic idea, and in the world of mini-budgets I (and other struggling writers) work with, it would be very attractive money.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

That seems a reasonable amount of money, and if I had any such ideas floating around, sure, I'd aim for it. I'd be even more stringent about the "features female characters prominently" requirement, in a Bechdelian way. "Has at least one female protagonist" with perhaps even "whose main concern is not a romantic male partner." (This is totally not a swipe at P&P, just extrapolating from the "two female who have a conversation about something other than a male" movie requirement.)

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking about adapting the Bechdel test to this. I might even say something like "female characters presented in a positive light". OK, so that's totally subjective, but it's going to be and "Please write a play I would like" is probably too vague :)

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

In case it became a smash hit, I'd change that to something like, "rights to perform it up to six times at T@F, and sell DVDs up to 1000 discs (or whatever is typical for you) without further royalty". I wouldn't sell anyone royalty-free rights in perpetuity.

(Well, okay, I did so when working for White Wolf, but I switched to SJGames as soon as I had a rep.)

I really doubt I have the chops for this, but I'll let the idea marinate.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wouldn't be looking for rights in perpetuity and I'd want to get all that in the fine print.

[dpolicar]

Not a ludicrous idea.
Expect to wade through a lot of crappy scripts.
Expect to deal with some cranky writers who get loudly upset upon being turned down.
It's unlikely that more money would get noticeably better results short of going up an order of magnitude or so.
I would not want to be on the reading committee.

[desireearmfeldt]

I want to say that seems like a generous amount of money, but actually a clever way to get data on this point would be to look at what sorts of prizes are offered by contests for full-length scripts (and note that sometimes "we produce your play" is part of the prize -- though that's from professional-type companies. Also note that contests often have entry fees, which I'm not entirely happy about as a paradigm, but does presumably raise the bar of seriousness for the applicants, which may or may not correlate with the quality of their writing).

I might in theory want to be on the reading committee but I'd have to think about time commitment & it would depend when this was happening.

In response to comments below, if you are thinking like I do, it's not "a female protagonist" or "two females who talk to each other (even about not-men)" that are the difficult things to find, it's "shows with *many* good parts for women." That is, either an ensemble cast of equal-ish, good roles, of which the majority are female; or a play in which a majority of the leading characters are female (regardless of the gender of the bit parts). There are lots of good parts for women out there; it's just that they are often in plays that call for many more male actors than female ones, or at best, similar numbers of both. Or they're in plays with very small casts.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Yes, this (size of female cast, both absolute and relative) is what I was thinking of also.

Entry fee is a good point. I agree that enacting a small barrier to submission is actually function-enhancing in this case. As a reference point, I entered an essay (short memoir) contest this past fall which had a $10 entry fee and a $1000 prize. I'm sure they had WAYYY more than 100 entrants. ;-)

[muffyjo]

1. I'd happily be on the reading committee.
2. I agree, it needs more boundaries, figuring them out might be a fun meeting/conversation/post.
3. I think that's a good cash prize.

Really not foolish...

[taura-g.livejournal.com]

I think it sounds pretty good.

I agree with the need for additional boundaries and I think the prize amount is fine.

I would not want to be on the reading committee but only because I haven't been able to finish anything more than news stories and the occasional Richard Castle novel in the last couple of years. (Though that is kind of meta isn't it? Novels by a fictional TV character)

[smacaski.livejournal.com]

$1,000 doesn't seem outrageous--it sounds like an amount T@F can afford, and it's probably a large enough carrot for local writers to try for. Typical performance rights are about $75/show (based on what I've seen on the Samuel French and DPS websites), so six shows would be $450 in rights and then another $550 to offset DVD royalties. That seems fair.

Also, I'd be on the reading committee.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

oh hell yeah.

[heliopsis.livejournal.com]

I think it's a brilliant idea.

I'd recommend you define two tiers of specification, requirements and preferences. That gives you room to set a small set of firm requirements, and offer some guidance to playwrights through the preferences without constraining it too much.

I would be interested in reading some plays, but I also know that my time will be very limited over the next several months. F the plays arrived in, say, October I might be in a better place to help out.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

It's hard for me to say since it's not what I do for a living, so I don't know if it would seem reasonable to someone who does. I also don't know if you're targeting pros or amateurs.

So I showed this to a friend who is not entirely a pro playwright, but who has been paid for his work on various occasions, and he said, "Seems like a great idea, but she's going to get BOMBARDED with entries with substantial prize money like that."

Maybe we can ask our various playwright buddies like MHL? (Or maybe you already have?)

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

A thought I had would be to ask for 2 scenes and an outline for round 1, and then you can more quickly weed out those who are completely inappropriate and just ask anybody who's anywhere in the ballpark to submit the completed script to be considered for the prize.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll make up a form that will include contact info, short bio, title, synopsis, etc. and ask for a 10-page sample to be submitted with that, with the idea that the finalists will be asked to submit full scripts. That would help with the reading load and weed out the probable-majority that don't meet the standards and criteria.

[outerjenise.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I'm deeply tempted to ask you not to do this, because if you do, I'll feel compelled to try writing a play when

a) I've never written a play before,
b) I have other writing projects languishing, and
c) I have entirely too much to do.

That said, this project is really, really exciting to me. Half-a-dozen ideas flitted through my head when I read your post. Adapt the SF/F novel about parenting I've been working on (way too dark, I suspect)? Adapt one of the mind-blowing Le Guin stories I've been reading? I once saw an awesome stage adaptation of The Left Hand of Darkness. There's this marvelous story about a world in which two couples marry, and each person in the marriage has one heterosexual and one homosexual relationship, and that would be fun and interesting to adapt.

Can I even pull off comedy? I've only managed that in about two stories, neither of which were good enough to sell, but hey, the one about the modern woman seduced by Zeus could easily turn into a fun pastiche on how badly women get treated in ancient mythology and how different those stories would be now. Just think of the fun in the costuming! Togas and business suits!

And that corner of my brain is off and whirring and happy, just contemplating the problem.

As for the money, I would definitely do it for that amount of money. $1000 is already twice as much as I'd get for a short story. And I like the challenge of learning a new writing form, which I've always wanted to learn anyway. For me, the question is, how much time do I have to accomplish this? I don't think I could produce a full-length play in less than six months. Pointers to where I could learn to write a script welcome.