“Under the Eclipse”

Young Playwrights’ Festival

The Actor’s Studio partners with the Rochester Museum and Science Center, Geva Theatre Center, and Writers and Books, for an eclipse-themed festival of plays by young writers aged 13-18.

Submit: eclipse@actorsstudiorochester.org

The deadline for submissions is February 14, 2024.

On April 8th 2024 at 3:20pm, Rochester will experience its first full solar eclipse in nearly 100 years. The next time that Rochester will be in the path of totality will be in 2144. 

Using this once-in-a-lifetime event as a writing prompt, short scripts will be curated by the Actor’s Studio for further development—five scripts will be chosen from the pool of submissions, read by professional actors literally under the eclipse and open to family, friends and the public. The readings will take place at Museum of Science during the “Roc the Eclipse” March 30 at 2pm.

Jean Ryon, who will spearhead the festival, is a director and teacher who has been a dramaturg for Geva for 25 years and managed the Regional and Young Playwrights Festival. Jean will be curating, dramaturgy, and directing.

Award-winning playwright and educator, Carter Lewis, will work with the five young playwrights to develop the scripts, and guide their revisions.

Carter is an Actor’s Studio Artist and is the former head of the Washington University playwrighting program—and a former playwright-in-Residence and literary manager at Geva. He is also a two-time nominee for the American Theatre Critics Award and his plays have been produced all over the nation for decades.

Professional actors will be chosen to rehearse the selected plays with our staff, directors, and playwrights, before script-in-hand readings take place at on March 30th at 2pm at the RMSCs Bausch Theatre—one week prior to the actual eclipse on April 8th.

The Actor’s Studio of Rochester is partnering with Geva, Writers and Books, and Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) on this project. Working with the RMSC’s “ROC the Eclipse” event, this playwriting festival will help to spark our community to look up and out—and provide a literary lens to view this once in more than a century event.

Entrant Guidelines

  • The Showcase is open to writers between the ages of 13 and 18 now living or having lived within the six-county area: Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Orleans, Ontario, and Genesee.

  • Plays for consideration must be submitted via email to eclipse@actorsstudiorochester.org by February 14, 2024.

  • Please include clear contact information on the title page: name, address, phone number, and email. 

  • Scripts should be no longer than ten (10) pages and contain no more than four (4) characters and in a standard script format. 

  • Entrants must submit the play in its entirety.

  • Writers may submit up to 3 plays for consideration.

  • Submitted plays may have multiple authors. 

  • Plays can be any genre: comedy, drama, sci-fi, romantic comedy, etc. No musicals, please.

  • The only requirement is that the 2024 Solar Eclipse must inspire the script in some way and the word “eclipse” is included in the script. How? It’s up to you! Let your imagination be your guide.

  • Selected authors will be notified by February 29.

  • Winning authors must be available to attend the rehearsal of their piece on Thursday, March 28, 2024 and the reading on Saturday, March 30, 2024.

  • Jean Gordon Ryon

    Jean served as Literary Associate/Dramaturg at Geva Theatre for 28 years, managing the Regional and Young Writers playwrighting competitions, directing public readings of new plays, and acting as dramaturg for many productions. She holds a degree in drama and a master's degree in education from Tufts University and another master's degree in arts administration from Goucher College. Recent directing credits in the community include Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Long Day's Journey into Night, Playboy of the Western World, and The Night Alive. She teaches for Geva as part of the Geva/SUNY Brockport Theatre Alliance. She is the Artistic Director of the Geriactors.

  • Carter W. Lewis

    Carter was Playwright-in-Residence for Washington University in St. Louis (1999 - 2021) and Playwright-in-Residence for Geva Theatre (1995-1999). National honors include a Jerome Residency at the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis; NEA/TCG Residency Grant at Studio Arena Theatre; The Cincinnati Playhouse Rosenthal New Play Prize; the 2019 Playwriting Fellowship for the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis and a two-time nominee for the American Theater Critics Award. He has had over a dozen plays commissioned and has had approximately 200 productions nationwide. Carter is currently writing full time in St Louis, where he lives with his free-thinking chocolate lab, Vivian.