16 short-form playwrights to face off in Seoul Players' 10-Minute Play Festival
Sabrine Ahmed Iqbal, left, and Torin Horvik wear cow costumes for "Bovine Existential," Brian Petti's play that won last year's 10-Minute Play Festival. Courtesy of Seoul Players
Seoul's international theater community prepares for battle once again, as the 10-Minute Play Festival (10MPF) takes to the stage to find this year's top playwright.
This will mark the 13th year of the contest, brought to the stage at Dulwich College in southern Seoul by Seoul Players, a not-for-profit, volunteer-run English-language theater group founded in 2001.
For this year's contest, they received 410 submissions sent in March and April from 354 playwrights based all over the world.
The number of submissions has exploded in recent years, peaking at more than 500 for last year's festival in just two weeks, before submissions had to be closed early.
"Last year, one of the board [members] felt that many of the hundreds of plays we got were AI-generated," said Lorne Oliver, a producer for Seoul Players.
He didn't disagree with the assessment, but he explained why it didn't affect their final decisions: "I just thought most of them were not up to snuff."
He added, "We did not bother to run them through an AI check; we just went with the assessment results, since cream floats."
This year, they tightened up the submission process to reduce the number of submissions. Playwrights were invited to submit one script — rather than three — for free. After the first three weeks, submissions cost $5.
"Paid submissions bring the quality up a lot more," Oliver said.
They narrowed the field down to 16 scripts by bringing in guest readers, who helped by ensuring each play was read three times, each assessed based on overall reaction, story, characters, dialogue and staging.
"From that, we take the top 40 scripts and read them aloud in early June over a lovely — and tiring — theatrical gathering of local actors in one marathon day," Oliver said. "From that, we choose the 16 scripts we will produce for the festival."
Of this year's selected plays, one was written by a Korea-based playwright, Mark Dorman, and another was by Chris Zaczek, who moved away recently after 20 years spent in Korea. The rest are based in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the U.K.
As all this was happening, the producers were busy putting out a call for directors and casting actors. Auditions were held at the end of summer, when most directors and actors returned from any vacations.
"Once we have settled on the 16 scripts, we give those to the directors to choose their top four choices, and then divvy them up," Oliver said. "Once assigned, we give the directors the script with full attribution, although we do not allow them to contact the authors directly, especially if they are local. If there are any questions or issues, the directors bring them to us, and we will act as intermediaries."
To make casting fair, the actors were auditioned based on rejected scripts. Each director then selects four different actors for each role, and the final casting decisions are made by Seoul Players. From then on, it is up to the directors to continue production and set the rehearsals.
"The standing rule is that actors can be in two plays — if chosen — and directors can direct two plays — if they choose — or direct one and act in one," he said.
However, for this year they had 85 auditioners for 40 roles, which Oliver said is "pretty good."
"No doubling of roles at all," he added.
Sixteen short productions will be staged Friday to Sunday in two blocks, each staged twice. Program A will be staged on Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m., and Program B will run on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.
For the first round, audiences will vote on their top four plays in each program. The top eight will then compete on Nov. 21, when five outside judges will evaluate the shows using the same criteria as in the initial assessment.
The top play will be awarded 300,000 won for the playwright and another 300,000 won for the cast and crew. The second-place play receives 200,000 won and third-place gets 100,000 won.
"While art is not, and should not be, a competition, the stakes do help bring out the best in all of us," Oliver said. "We just want the audience to have a great time."
He added that this will be his last year producing the 10MPF solo, after 10 years producing eight competitions.
"I have, notoriously, said, in October — usually peak stress time — that this is my last year doing this, and that is a standing joke amongst the board," he said. "I can pat myself on the back for having helped elevate it from bars in the bowels of Itaewon to legit stages in Guro, Jongno and now Dulwich, with international playwrights from all over the world; it has grown a lot. It takes a team, and the board has always been there to help. It is time to hand it on to someone else to see what they can make of it."
Tickets are 25,000 won at the door or 20,000 in advance (cash or bank deposit only, no credit card payments). Package tickets and group discounts are available for all stagings. Visit seoulplayers.org for more information or to buy tickets.