The Reva Shiner Comedy Award presents an unpublished full-length comedy with a cash prize of $1,000, a full production as part of the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s Mainstage season, along with travel reimbursement. We are currently accepting submissions for the 2021-22 Season. Scripts must be submitted by October 31, 2020.

Previous winners have gone on to enjoy productions around the world and to garner additional honors such as the National Play Award.

2019-20 Award

Due to COVID-19 precautions, the Bloomington Playwrights Project will have a limited live performance schedule for the 2020/2021 season. Our Reva Shiner Comedy Award winner JUST BETWEEN THE ALL OF US will get it’s full production in April 2021.

WINNER – JUST BETWEEN THE ALL OF US
Music by David Christensen
Book and Lyrics by Sarah Ziegler Blair and Kellen Blair

FINALISTS

CHICKEN AND BISCUITS – Douglas Lyons
BOOK OF MAGGIE – Brendan Bourque-Sheil
FAMILY GAME NIGHT – Peter Kennedy
WRITER’S BLOCK – Christopher Canaan
GUILTY PLEASURES – Ken Levine
SUPREMA – Phil Keeling

BAYVILLE HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS’ BOOK CLUB – Vicki Riba Koestler

Guidelines for Submissions

We are currently accepting submissions for the 2021-22 Reva Shiner Comedy Award. The winner will be announced by June 2021.

  1. “Full-length” plays should have a complete running time of between 1 hour 15 minutes (75 minutes) to 2 hours 15 minutes (135 minutes).
  2. Plays submitted must be unpublished at the time of submission.
  3. Each submission should be sent to BPP via email. Send your email to literarymanager@newplays.org
  4. Your email should include the following:
    1. Tell us for which competition you are submitting: Reva Shiner Comedy or the script Woodward Newman Drama
    2. Tell us your name, phone number, and the name of your Play
    3. Tell us how you are satisfying the $10 administrative fee
      1. Agent submitted scripts require no fee.
      2. If via Dramatist Guild membership, attach a copy of your DG card to the email
      3. If you have paid via Paypal on our website, indicate your confirmation number and the email address used.
      4. Paypal is preferred, but if you can’t pay on-line, you may send a check or Money Order, (must be from a US bank). Tell us the check or Money Order number. Make it payable to “BPP” and mail to BPP, 107 W 9th ST, Bloomington, IN 47404
  5. Attach a PDF file containing your script with the following information included in the following order:
    1. Title page with author name
    2. Synopsis (1 page or less)
    3. Character list/breakdown
    4. Production history for the play—Include readings and productions
    5. A brief bio of the playwright,
    6. Full Script
    7. Submissions that fail to include all requested information in the order listed will be disqualified from the contest.
    8. Plays submitted in previous years will be accepted.
    9. Two separate submissions per playwright per annual competition are allowed as long as each submission has all the required materials.

Pay Reader Fee




Past Winners

  • 2019-2020 The Burdens by Matt Schatz
  • 2018-2019 Apropos of Nothing by Greg Kalleres
  • 2017-2018 Beating a Dead Horse by Jenny Stafford
  • 2016-2017 Thirty Day Mourning Period by Hank Greene
  • 2015-2016 Billy Witch by Gregory S Moss
  • 2014-2015 Kalamazoo by Michelle Kholos Brooks & Kelly Younger
  • 2013-2014 Mad Gravity by William Missouri Downs
  • 2012-2013 Ampersand by Vincent Delaney
  • 2011-2012 I Am Grock by Amanda Rogers
  • 2010-2011 Artifice by Anne Flanagan
  • 2009-2010 Naked in the Kitchen by Lynda Martens
  • 2008-2009 Sans Merci by Johnna Adams
  • 2007-2008 Work by Terri Wagener
  • 2006-2007 Empty Sky by Sarah Treem
  • 2005-2006 The Housewives of Mannheim by Alan Brody
  • 2004-2005 The New Jersey Book of the Dead by Jason Grote
  • 2003-2004 Maleficia-200: A Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches by Suzanne Wingrove
  • 2002-2003 Menace of ‘64 by Mark Ulrich
  • 2001-2002 New World Rhapsody by Adam Kraar
  • 2000-2001 Outrage by Itamar Moses
  • 1999-2000 The Return of Morality by Jamie Pachino
  • 1998-1999 Alice in Ireland by Judy Sheehan
  • 1997-1998 Medea with Child by Janet Burroway
  • 1996-1997 My Sister Calling My Name by Buzz McLaughlin
  • 1995-1996 Between Men and Cattle by Richard Kalinoski
  • 1994-1995 Tobacco Legacy by Wesley Webb
  • 1993-1994 Nobody’s Flood by Glenn Alterman

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