Let your work take center stage.
Are you a budding playwright? Do you have a pet project? Do you just need a bit of a funding or an open venue? You have several options in the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) to bring your creative vision to life. Each opportunity below provides a mix of funding, resources, and mentorship for student-driven work.
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About the Award
The department holds an annual student one-act playwriting contest, with the winner(s) receiving a distinguished McClenon Clark Playwriting Award. The contest accepts submissions on a rolling basis. The submissions are evaluated by a guest adjudicator, with award recipients announced at the beginning of spring semester. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three award recipients ($300, $200, and $100 for first, second, and third places). The first place award recipient will receive mentorship in a new play development process and the opportunity to have their work performed as a staged reading.
Barbara McClenon Clark ’42 made a gift in 2001 to establish the McClenon Clark Playwriting Award. She was active in theatre as a professional writer, producer, and performer. McClenon Clark was a member of the Space Coast Playwrights’ Workshop and won awards from the Space Coast Writer’s Guild.
Submission Guidelines
Submission Deadline: Dec. 15 at 5 p.m. (recurring)
Manuscripts: To participate, please submit two PDF copies of your manuscript (no longer than 30 pages in length) to shookjen@grinnell.edu. One copy of the manuscript should include your name, and the other copy should not contain any identifying information.
Duplicate Submissions: One submission will be accepted per student per year. Past winners and submitters are welcome to submit again with a new work. Pieces may be submitted for multiple awards (ie: Moffett Award, Playwriting Award, Open Space), but are not eligible to win multiple awards.
Creative Expectations: Submissions must be authored by the submitting student. In keeping with the ethics of good collaboration, submissions must cite every source consulted, including all humans and all tools. This includes citing AI tools used as “thinking partners,” research assistance, and editors. Because this award is designed by the founding funders to celebrate student writing, text created by others, including generative AI, should NOT be used unless treated as a quotation and cited.
Contact Jen Shook with questions.
About the Award
The Moffett Award is a cash fund given to individual students for their practice in theatre, dance, and performance studies. The parameters for these practices are broad and inclusive. Students from all majors and class years are eligible for this award. Recent projects have included the early stages of devising a play, staging a play written by the student, and attending a dance program abroad (all projects followed by a public presentation).
Submission Guidelines
Application Deadline: Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. (recurring)
View Moffett Award application details (PDF)
Contact the TDPS department chair with questions.
The possibilities for advanced research in your field are expansive, and TDPS MAPs have taken many shapes. Students have used dance as a teaching tool in the medical profession; used performance technology to design an interactive installation; conducted and presented dramaturgical research; directed plays and musicals — just to name a few.
Students are strongly encouraged to speak with TDPS faculty well in-advance of campus MAP deadlines to ensure their project can integrate with TDPS resource allocation (ie: venue and equipment usage, staff time, etc.).
Open space works are a self-directed opportunity for you to explore a particular area of production that will benefit your development as an artist. These areas may be, but are not limited to:
- directing scripted works
- devising work
- working in a new or unfamiliar genre
- building ensemble
- coaching actors
Open space works should rely more on the performance aspects, and less on the technical aspects, of a production.
The department will take applications into consideration and make a selection (or two) based on the application’s merit and TDPS resources.
Spring works application deadline: Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. (recurring)
Fall works application deadline: Apr. 1 at 5 p.m. (recurring)
Visit the TDPS SharePoint page (login required) for student works guidelines and application documents.