Tiny play competition Irish Times/Fishamble

Wantobe

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0924/1224304647526.html

storker

Good idea this. I'll have an entry as soon as I can shave just over 100 words off it... :rolleyes:

Stork

me-skywalker

Seems really... short. I have a piece from months ago that I never finished I could finish for this.

The Mad Hatter

I'm trying to put a few together so I can pick my favourites from amongst them. I've got my first done now anyway.

dominiquecruz

Does there need to be serious formatting for this? I want to write something, but will probably just follow the examples they give on the Times website.

Also, when forwarding a piece, should we attach a document or keep it in the body of the email?

pog it

me-skywalker wrote: »

Seems really... short. I have a piece from months ago that I never finished I could finish for this.

Check out Beckett Short Plays. Few different collections out there. Some of the plays he has written are even shorter than 600 words. Unearthed mine at the weekend, two days after I had heard about the competition, so I reckon I'm at a major disadvantage finding out about it so late.. so no harm if my play doesn't win then

pog it

How are people getting on with this? I took advantage of the long weekend and I'm at my final edit.

It's the first play I've written, ever, so not expecting too much!

The Mad Hatter

Got my first one done and...that's about it. Reasonably happy with it, though. Still gonna try to shoot out a few more before the deadline.

pog it

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Got my first one done and...that's about it. Reasonably happy with it, though. Still gonna try to shoot out a few more before the deadline.

A few more? Fair play to you I think there may have been something in the guidelines about a max. of 2 per person? Might be worth double-checking so you can be selective.
Best of luck, it would be a lovely project to be part of with so many plays getting produced.

I wonder can we expect to get feedback either way? I'm going to show mine to a friend I trust to be honest with me, but it would be great to get feedback from Fishamble.

iguana

I finished mine on Monday ahead of starting Nanowrimo. I'm just doing one.

The Mad Hatter

pog it wrote: »

A few more? Fair play to you I think there may have been something in the guidelines about a max. of 2 per person? Might be worth double-checking so you can be selective.
Best of luck, it would be a lovely project to be part of with so many plays getting produced.

Thanks, and best of luck to you too. Yeah, I figured I'd try to write five or six and then pick my favourites. I've got my second one finished now, so at the very least I can enter them both if inspiration doesn't strike again...

I wonder can we expect to get feedback either way? I'm going to show mine to a friend I trust to be honest with me, but it would be great to get feedback from Fishamble.

I hope so, but I wouldn't count on it:)

erinp

"Due to the overwhelming amount of interest in the project we will only contact those writers whose plays have been chosen for production. We hope to have decisions made by mid to late December."
Got that in the email (I suppose the rest of you did too) so I lost hope of any feedback or success.
Good luck everyone, would love to hear what you all wrote about once the deadline's come and gone

pog it

erinp wrote: »

"Due to the overwhelming amount of interest in the project we will only contact those writers whose plays have been chosen for production. We hope to have decisions made by mid to late December."
Got that in the email (I suppose the rest of you did too) so I lost hope of any feedback or success.
Good luck everyone, would love to hear what you all wrote about once the deadline's come and gone

Whoa! Mine's going in to them tonight. Have enjoyed the writing of it though so not too worried about the being selected part .. well kind of! Always nice to win

Slang_Tang

I got mine in last night (11th November) just before midnight. I hope I got it in on time. I wasn't too happy with my entry. I kept changing it. There are a couple of lines of dialogue at a crucial moment that sound so unnatural and stilted. I just couldn't get them to work.

Best of luck everyone, anyway.

storker

Mine was sitting there for weeks before I sent it in on the 10th. It's a conversation between a couple and the intention is for the audience to empathise with their concerns. Just before I submitted, I made one final edit. It occurred to me that maybe I should actually give them names!!! Up until then it was "Man" and "Woman". I had meant to from the start, of course, just never got round to deciding and almost completely forgot about it.

Obvious stuff you nearly miss no. 94...

Stork

JimmyJimmy

I submitted one too... simple idea about two irish guys living in australia talking about home.... anyone want to post theirs for opinions now that the deadline has passed? i'd be happy to if anyone is interested in reading

pog it

JimmyJimmy wrote: »

I submitted one too... simple idea about two irish guys living in australia talking about home.... anyone want to post theirs for opinions now that the deadline has passed? i'd be happy to if anyone is interested in reading

I would, only my real name is gone in with my entry, and I'm regular enough here so I'd like to keep my privacy, but fire ahead yourself. I'm sure people would be happy to give you feedback.

iguana

Humph! I just got an email from Fishamble and was really excited thinking they must have really loved it that they were contacting me so early, but it was just the standard email everyone got arriving with me a week late. Poo.

storker

iguana wrote: »

Humph! I just got an email from Fishamble and was really excited thinking they must have really loved it that they were contacting me so early, but it was just the standard email everyone got arriving with me a week late. Poo.

I had to laugh at the bit that said "Due to the overwhelming amount of interest in the project we will only contact those writers whose plays have been chosen for production". It calls to mind job-hunting in the'80s. You'd think e-mails required a stamp or something.

Gather the e-mail addresses of everyone who submitted an entry. Remove the addresses of the winners from the list. BCC the "sorry you were unsuccessful" note to the rest. Sorted.

Stork

Slang_Tang

storker wrote: »

I had to laugh at the bit that said "Due to the overwhelming amount of interest in the project we will only contact those writers whose plays have been chosen for production". It calls to mind job-hunting in the'80s. You'd think e-mails required a stamp or something.

Gather the e-mail addresses of everyone who submitted an entry. Remove the addresses of the winners from the list. BCC the "sorry you were unsuccessful" note to the rest. Sorted.

Welcome to the world of creative writing competitions.

At least this one is free to enter. Most writing competitions charge entrants for the service of sending standardized rejection e-mails.

The Mad Hatter

I...er...missed the deadline. I may post the plays I wrote here, just to see what people think.

pog it

storker wrote: »

I had to laugh at the bit that said "Due to the overwhelming amount of interest in the project we will only contact those writers whose plays have been chosen for production". It calls to mind job-hunting in the'80s. You'd think e-mails required a stamp or something.

Gather the e-mail addresses of everyone who submitted an entry. Remove the addresses of the winners from the list. BCC the "sorry you were unsuccessful" note to the rest. Sorted.

Stork

Well hopefully someone here will have been successful and lets us know.

meganj

Has anyone heard any more from this? Just (obsessively) wondering if the plays have been chosen? Not that I imagine my ridiculous attempt will make it, but it would be nice to stop imagining myself as the next Beckett :rolleyes:

Slang_Tang

No, nothing yet. They said mid- to late-December, so I wouldn't worry yet. They have a Facebook page and Twitter, so if you keep an eye on that you'll be the first to know.

pog it

Exactly. And expect nothing.. just in case! There could be many hundreds in for this.

meganj

Oh don't worry i'm not expecting anything, except maybe that the Times might publish it under the heading of 'what not to do' so anything above public mockery would be great even if it is nothing.

Good point about fb and twitter I shall now start pressing f5 until I get carpal tunnel

Slang_Tang

pog it wrote: »

Exactly. And expect nothing.. just in case! There could be many hundreds in for this.

More like a few thousand, according to their Twitter. I pretty much gave up hope after reading that.

pog it

Wow, you're right. I just looked at their twitter page, at one stage they said they had processed the 1000th entry and had even more to go!

I think we'll hear soon though, they have just released tickets for the event.

I definitely won't win. Mine is very sombre in tone and more of an 'issue play' which I didn't fully realise until I was reading through a book by David Mamet. Also, I've just read the Irish Times tiny plays they published in the run-up and I hate to say this but I only enjoyed the one by Ardal O'Hanlon (this is just my personal taste, nothing to do with the quality of the other plays) so I definitely don't think I'm a fit.

pog it

meganj wrote: »

Oh don't worry i'm not expecting anything, except maybe that the Times might publish it under the heading of 'what not to do' so anything above public mockery would be great even if it is nothing.

Good point about fb and twitter I shall now start pressing f5 until I get carpal tunnel

hahaha

F5?? What's that?

meganj

pog it wrote: »

F5?? What's that?

It's a keyboard shortcut for refreshing your browser window... So there ya go! Learn something new every day. Although I'm beginning to doubt myself as I'm currently on a mac, and it doesn't work :eek:

Also I don't think you should say 'you won't win' you never know, as you pointed out you only liked one of the plays published, it only takes one person who's choosing to like yours!

pog it

They received over 1700 entries! (twitter)

alleystar

Does anybody know how many they're choosing??

iguana

I'm not sure how many are being chosen but on Facebook they say the winners now won't be notified until mid January.

Slang_Tang

alleystar wrote: »

Does anybody know how many they're choosing??

I'd say around 20. They have to put on an evening's entertainment, so at four minutes each, it would have to be 20. The evening will also have plays from established writers.

pog it

No word yet?

dominiquecruz

Some emails were sent today and some are being sent tomorrow according to their Facebook. Anyone get lucky?

Slang_Tang

dominiquecruz wrote: »

Some emails were sent today and some are being sent tomorrow according to their Facebook. Anyone get lucky?

On their Facebook: "Emails to some authors gone tonight, more to follow tomorrow. Bear with us, having server problems " (Posted around 8 p.m., 12th January)

I re-read my entry and it's dreadful, so I'm not expecting an e-mail. But good luck to everyone else. Here's hoping for some Boards members on the final list.

Someone on Twitter says they chose 50 in the end, which seems a little high.

pog it

No e-mail for me either, but I don't mind.

Maybe they're having two evenings of plays instead of one now? I saw that tweet about 50 being chosen, so perhaps they just let the winners know more details in their e-mails.

Slang_Tang

I got a rejection email, so everyone should have heard something by now.

silversky

My heart dropped when I got the email today.

I suppose there's always next year.

Thanks to whoever posted up the comp though. I wouldn't have known about it otherwise.

Baky

CV seems to be important. As far as I can see, most winners are published writers - no just published, but quite well known.

LegacyUser

As a member of the panel who read all submissions, I can assure you CV had nothing to do with the selection. Fishamble commissioned some well known writers - nine, to be included in the final 50 chosen plays.

pog it

Baky wrote: »

CV seems to be important. As far as I can see, most winners are published writers - no just published, but quite well known.

They commissioned some of those plays Baky so they were outside of the competition itself as far as I know. I suppose it's just to draw a bigger audience. Ardal O'Hanlon will probably come up with something really good! I liked his little play in the Irish Times and I think there's some depth to the guy.

Something I thought was bizarre but could be just me was an interview with a young playwright and theatre person, I won't name them, who said in a newspaper article recently that they have a pre-determined audience and they make plays for a specific audience so essentially it takes the risk out of it. I really don't like that approach but it seems to be the way with the Project Arts Centre and other smaller theatres.

Definitely wouldn't be too disheartened by not winning this. We don't know who the judges were either and there were 1700 entries after all so lots of good plays won't have got through.