Cal Shakes is Seeking Submissions for Our New Classics Commissions Project
Alongside our long history of staging classic works at the Bruns, Cal Shakes is committed to fostering the voices of today and the future. We are calling for original script submissions from Bay Area playwrights, and we particularly welcome BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ identified applicants. We also acknowledge and welcome applicants with disabilities and ask you to let us know your access needs.
Submissions should be new adaptations of classic works from any and all cultural traditions that are as yet unperformed and unpublished. Two plays will be chosen from these submissions to receive a professional staged reading at the Bruns, and the playwrights will each receive a $1000 honorarium.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Can the play I submit have had a reading, or staged reading?
A: Your play can have had an informal reading, but not a professional reading or a reading ticketed/sold or publicized by a theater company.
Q: What qualifies as “classic”? Would this include adaptations of ancient Greek plays? Mythology or folk tales – from any cultural tradition? Plays by 19th or early 20th-century playwrights?
A: Yes, all of those would qualify!
Q: Are we accepting musical adaptations of classic works?
A: Unfortunately, we’re not able to accept musicals at this time.