Every year, College of the Canyons offers local aspiring playwrights the chance to be discovered.

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The submission deadline for COC’s 14th annual New Works Festival is coming up on Wednesday, Nov. 13, open to original plays, single acts, scenes and monologues written by authors of all ages.

Every submission will be reviewed, and between eight and 13 entries will be chosen for the Spring 2014 “Theatre 190A: New Works Festival” class.

Geography and age are not constraints to participating. The Festival has accepted submissions from San Francisco, Texas and South Carolina, videoconferencing for class sessions. The youngest playwright selected was 13 years old and the oldest was in their mid 60s.

At the end of the Spring 2014 semester, the plays will be performed live on stage, between May 1 and 4, at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center Black Box Theater.

“It’s exciting to be entering the fourteenth year of the New Works Festival,” said David Stears, COC theatre instructor and NWF director. “The COC theatre department is committed to providing opportunities for students to create their own content. Many festivals simply collect plays and present them. The New Works Festival at COC is unique in that the focus is on developing the writing, with the playwrights directly involved in that process.”

New Works Festival alumni have gone on to see some of their works professionally recognized or produced, including at the Actor’s Playpen, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, the Hollywood Fringe Festival and the Writer’s Digest Writing Competition.

A list of criteria for submissions is available on the New Works Festival webpage. All entries must be turned in by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 13 and no movie or film scripts will be accepted. There is no initial charge to enter.

The COC Theatre Department is in the process of compiling the winning entries from each year and publishing anthologies. The 2008 and 2011 editions are both available on Amazon.

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