just FYI: yes, i do check out the playwrighting boards and the "competition". why? 'cause i want to know how to make this crazy little festival the best it can be, and if that means having to read something that doesn't necessarily make me all warm and fuzzy inside, so be it: i still want to know.

that being said, here's a post i put on a playwrighting board re: a post that was previously put on the board:

hi XXXX:

i think i can answer this for you. today (9/02/07) is the final day for submissions for the 3rd Annual Impact Theater Winter One Act Festival. however, reading for the festival began once we started accepting submissions, which was at the end of June, making our process something of a "rolling" process (if i'm getting my terminology correct). there are two main reasons as to why we haven't waited until the end of the submission period to start reading plays:

1) there was a belief that we would be innundated with plays and that to start reading them once we got ALL of them would be somewhat cruel to the volunteer readers. as of this time (2:13pm on the deadline date) we have 338 submissions, and the inbox has at least twenty new e-mails in it. for our "staff" of four volunteer readers, that would mean going through both rounds one and two of reading in a month's time, which seemed unfair to them.

2) having myself been on the submitting end of the slush pile, i personally dislike waiting for weeks (sometimes months, once almost two years) on end for not only some type of acknowledgement of my submission but for either an acceptance or a rejection. for me, the sooner i get either, the sooner i can move on with my work. the least courtesy that i feel i should provide a playwright is as quick a "receipt of submission" e-mail that i can send, and a reply of intent on the piece in the most reasonable amount of time.

please do remember that just because one group declined your work does not mean that ALL groups have declined it, and there is a match of a producer for your plays out there somewhere.

if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.

E.K. Rivera

Impact Theater

http://geocities.com/impact_oneacts