Sketchbook is a play festival like no other. Every year Collaboraction guides over 200 artists through an exciting collaboration of music, art and theatrical performances. Sketchbook is Chicago’s leading collaborative celebration where 15-20 short performances of 7 minutes or less mingle and dream. Every night a different musical guest creates a sonic environment before, between, and after the performances allowing each night its own unique power. Throughout the space, contemporary visual art is installed and exhibited in dialogue with the mood of the performances.

Over the past 6 years, Sketchbook has produced world premiere works by well-known writers such as Beth Henley, Wendy MacLeod, David Mamet, and Rebecca Gilman, as well as many promising newcomers. In total, we have produced over 80 world premiere short plays.

Styles & Staging

Anything goes. By sketch we mean minimal, concise strokes. We are looking for work that; emerges where ideas are raw and newly inspiredl; writing that highlights moments rather than scenes; plays that are “sudden” rather than “short”; work that is in the stage right before you refine, develop and expand it. In addition to the avant-garde or free form, we are interested in identifiable human characters, rich interesting environments and situation, whether the style is realistic, lyrical or otherwise. These plays will be performed in a non-standard environment.

Although we promote all writers to rethink how we have presented Sketchbook in the past, below are some common denominators that have succeeded within the Sketchbook settings:

Innovative and unusual staging opportunities.
Audience involvement.
Involvement of different media by weaving other forms into the fabric of the narrative.
Physically challenging moments and concepts for the performers.
Ensemble generated work. For those of you in proximity to Chicago, we encourage the option of collaborating with a director, designers, team of actors or other creative groups and submitting your work as a whole. Please note, if work of this method is accepted Collaboraction retains creative control over all aspects of the final piece (i.e. casting, lighting, etc.).

As we are always looking for a diversity of formats, this year we are encouraging but not restricting writers who work in the following forms:

Narratives; Monologues; Multi-Media Explorations; Installations; Ensemble Creations, Experimental, Avant-Garde, Poetic Work; Movement Based Work and Musicals.

Selection Process

A first round of plays are winnowed from all submissions by an 8-10 person reading committee. A second committee made up of the Sketchbook Festival Director and Sketchbook Producers further narrow this group to roughly 40 Semifinalists based on complimentary themes and styles that emerge from this year's group. That group of Semifinalists is then given to our 40 Semifinalist directors, each of whom writes a proposal for 5 different plays they have selected from the 40. Each of these five are potential Sketches. The Sketchbook Festival is produced from the best of roughly 200 director proposals, resulting in a Festival of 15-20 sketches.

Submission Guidelines

• SUBMISSIONS CANNOT HAVE BEEN PRODUCED ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD EXCEPT AS READINGS OR WORKSHOPS.
• A sketch can be no more than 7 minutes in performance duration. Any play over 7 pages in length will not be read. (This format should not be confused with the one act or 10-minute play format.)
• DO NOT submit full-length plays for consideration. They will be discarded.
• Submissions must be in a standard font and no less than 12 point.
• We only accept two document types: .rtf (Rich Text Format - every word processor has this format) and .doc (Microsoft Word).
• DO NOT include your name anywhere in the document file. Readers will not know who the author of a given play is. The database maintains a link between your writer profile and the submitted play.
• DO NOT include a cover page or character description with your play. Any such page will be added to the total number of pages processed by our submission system and may disqualify you from consideration. Use the Description area and Category menu of the submission form.
• You may submit a maximum of 3 plays. If more than 3 submissions are made by one writer all submissions made by said writer will be disqualified.
• If you are submitting more than once you must submit each play independently. Do not bundle all of your submissions into one.
• Apple/Mac users must also remember to include the file extension of their document as part of the name, e.g. Appleplay.rtf
• Sketchbook will take place in June 2007.
• Deadline for Submissions: February 25, 2007.
• NOTE TO APPLE/MAC USERS: Some older browsers, particularly Apple/Mac browsers, may have difficulties with the upload features of the form. If your browser does not allow you to submit your play via the form that follows, please consider alternative forms of submission, which you can find out about by choosing the option on the Writer's Agreement page to go Alternative Forms of Submission.