What?

The 31 Plays in 31 Days Project is a chance for playwrights to push themselves to write a new play every day for the month of August. The plays must be a minimum of one page. Are you up for the challenge?

Why?

The 31 Plays in 31 Days Project is based on the idea that to become a better writer, you must write. You must write a lot. And you need to practice experimenting with your writing form constantly. The pressure of this goal will allow you to set aside preconceived notions of what you should be writing and how you should be doing it. You will not have time to overanalyze your work, you will just have to write, write, write and be surprised by what comes out of you. You may love your work some days and wonder what happened on others, but by the end of the month, you will have amassed 31 new plays. Instead of waiting for the breeze of inspiration to blow your way, you will see that writing is a craft that can be called on at any time.

When?

August 1st at 12:00 am until August 31st at 11:59pm (What timezone? Yours!)

Where?

Anywhere and everywhere!

Who?

Playwrights who are crazy enough to write 31 Plays in just 31 short days!

Finally…. How?

We offer a FREE, optional digital submission opportunity for writers who want to feel like their scripts are going somewhere. If you choose to submit your scripts to us, you will retain all of the rights to your work. You can choose whether to submit as you go or in “clumps.” Just make sure to get them all in before midnight on August 31st.

While not required to get the full 31 Plays experience, submissions are a helpful tool for us to collect data about approximately how many folks are participating. If you don’t feel like submitting all of your 31 plays, we do ask that you submit at least one of your plays, along with a few words about your 31/31 experience. This will ensure you’re counted in our list of participants.



CLICK HERE to sign up for your FREE green submissions account.

You may send your first play August 1st as soon as the submissions window activates (this year, that depends on whether or not Tracy decides to stay up late or wake up at a reasonable hour to activate it). The submissions window will close when all timezones leave the month of August.

Code of Ethics & Guidelines

A lot of writers are wondering what the rules are for the 31 Plays in 31 Days project. We really only have one rule: write 31 plays within the 31 days of August. The 31 Plays in 31 Days project exists to serve your needs as a writer. We’re providing you with a challenging and structured opportunity to write while giving you the flexibility you need to be successful. The following Code of Ethics and Guidelines are designed to give you parameters within which to work.

CODE OF ETHICS

1. No plagiarism. Seriously, what’s the point of doing this project if you’re going to copy someone else?

2. Submit only new plays written in August. It’s one thing to write a play based on ideas conceived earlier, but this is not the time to tweak a play you wrote, workshopped, and produced two years ago. If you’re really stuck on revisiting a story you’ve written before, consider how you can retell the story in a completely different way (maybe all of the characters are dogs, the setting has changed from a WWI battlefield to a modern high school, perhaps the characters that say derogatory things for no reason that supports the story can say things that are meaningful, etc.).

3. Treat this challenge as an opportunity to bump up against some walls and break through them. When facing self-doubt and self-sabotage, provide yourself with excuses and opportunities to succeed. We will offer writing prompts to help you move beyond writer’s block, and we’ll post encouraging messages to help you continue on this journey.

GUIDELINES

1. Each play should, by your standards, have some semblance of being a complete play. The length, structure, presence (or lack of presence) of a through line, and all of the other “rules” about what makes a “good” play are all subject to your whim.

2. Submit the work that you’re not happy with. We don’t care if your characters are believable, if your plot is plausible, or if your ending is satisfying. We just want you to write a bunch of stories in a fixed period of time. We won’t publish or perform anything without your permission.

3. Do your best to submit one play per day. Although you will be able to submit everything at the end of the month, you’ll be more likely to keep up with the project if you submit frequently and regularly.

4. Create space in your day to write. Consider scheduling specific times to write each day or writing alongside a friend to make sure you follow-through on your commitment. (Yes, you can collaborate on plays with other writers, and you can each submit the same play as part of your 31 plays in August.) We are really excited that you’re interested in participating in this writing challenge. We’re as nervous as you are about figuring out ways to succeed in writing 31 plays in 31 days, but we know we can do it, and we know you can, too. Honestly, this project is about helping us overcome the things that get in our way. Whether or not you follow our guidelines or write 31 plays, this project will give you a chance to stretch your playwright’s muscles. Go for it!

About Us!

Topher Cusumano, Executive Director

Topher Cusumano is a playwright, producer, and humorist from Brooklyn, New York. His latest work, The Cult Play, was produced off-off-Broadway by Phoenix Theatre Ensemble at New York’s Paradise Factory. His screenplay “Bad Shine” made it to the top 50 go the Oscar’s Nicholl Fellowship in 2014 out of over 7,000 submissions. Topher holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Savannah College of Art & Design. His comedt writing has been published with outlets like Splitsider, Next Magazine, Hornet Stories, Point in Case, and more. Twitter: @tophcus.



Erika E. Wade, Contributing Staff

Erika E. Wade is a 25 year old award-wining writer from Birmingham, Alabama. Her works have been published in Hanging Loose Magazine of New York, Skirt magazine, Birmingham Arts Journal, and won the Birmingham Public Library’s Word-Up poetry slam for two consecutive years. Most recently, she was honored as a 2016 finalist for The Kennedy Center’s MFA Playwrights Workshop. Her premier publication, eyestodewhulrd, was written during her senior year in high school. Since then, she has had numerous plays produced, and wrote, performed and produced a solo show for her MFA thesis at Savannah College of Art and Design. Currently, she lives in Los Angeles, California, performing and pursuing a career as a television writer.



Abigail Taylor-Sansom, Contributing Staff



Abigail Taylor-Sansom is a writer and performer. Her work for the stage has been presented at theaters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom and is published by Heuer, Smith & Kraus, and YouthPLAYS. Her feature screenplays have received recognition from the Beverly Hills Film Festival, the Sundance Institute, ScreenCraft, and Faith in Film. She was a 2016-2017 Amtrak Writer in Residence and traveled over 6,000 miles by train during her residency. As an actor, her credits include Off-Broadway, national tours, regional theatre, and a national commercial. She splits her time between Savannah, Georgia, where she is pursuing an MFA in dramatic writing at Savannah College of Art and Design, and New York City.

Rachel Bublitz, Founder

Rachel Bublitz is an award-winning and internationally produced playwright. Her play Of Serpents & Sea Spray was commissioned and produced by Custom Made Theatre and received a second production with This is Water Theatre. Her full-length Ripped won the 2018 Detroit New Works Festival and will be produced in 2019 with Outvisible Theatre Company. Another full-length, Let’s Fix Andy, was a finalist for Playwrights Foundation’s 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and is receiving a development production in the 2019 Wyoming Theater Festival. The Egyptian Youtheatre has commissioned two plays from Rachel; Cheerleaders VS. Aliens, which was produced in May of 2018, and The Night Witches, which will have a world premiere in the summer of 2019. Her ten-minute play Really Adult was a finalist for the Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2017 Heideman Award and was just produced in the Wet Paint New Play Festival in New York City. Rachel has also worked with San Francisco Playhouse, 20% Theatre Company Chicago, PlayGround, Salt Lake Acting Company, Plan-B Theatre, and many others. Her plays have been published with YouthPLAYS, Smith & Kraus, and Eldridge Publishing. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and has an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from SFSU. When she isn’t writing, she’s chasing after her two viking-like kids. For more, visit RachelBublitz.com

Tracy Held Potter, Co-Founder

Tracy Held Potter is the Founder and Artistic Director of All Terrain Theater and the former Executive Director of Play Cafe. Her plays and musicals have been produced by All Terrain Theater, Musical Cafe, Hollywood Fringe, SF Fringe (Best of Fringe), and the SF Bay One-Acts Festival (included in 2013 print anthology). She has also had readings through Ensemble Studio Theatre, LA, Monday Night PlayGround (People’s Choice Awards and Finalist for Best of PlayGround), True False Theater, NYC, Masquers Playhouse, and Play Cafe. Her stage drama “Plastic Nest” was a semi-finalist for the Playwrights Foundation’s Bay Area Playwrights Festival, was developed at the HBMG Foundation’s National Winter Playwrights Retreat and audio series. She is currently developing a number of pieces, including stage plays, screenplays, and television pilots. She received her A.A. degree in Theatre Arts from Laney College in Oakland and her bachelors of science degree in Conservation and Resource Studies from UC, Berkeley. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University with Rob Handel. She is represented by Zana Scott at The Wayne Agency. tracyheldpotter.com

Huge thanks to Ian Mintz, who designed our beautiful website & logo!