Midtown Theatre Festival Extends
Submission Deadline
Those interested in applying to the Fifth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF5), which will be taking place from July 12th to August 1, 2004, have an extra month to do so as the MITF Selection Committee has pushed back the Festival's submission deadline from January 15th to February 15th.
"We like to give people as much time as possible to submit their projects for consideration," said MITF executive producer John Chatterton. "Everybody is always under the gun with deadlines and always wanting more time to tweak their work before sending it out. This is just our way of saying 'we sympathize with you and we're giving you some of that extra time' However, this will be our only extension. After all, we have deadlines too."
Begun in 2000, the Midtown International Theatre Festival has only one rule when it comes to submissions-and that is, there are no rules. All types of work will be considered; from original musicals, to one-person shows, to classical works, to cabaret performances. Over the years, the MITF has presented productions in all of these categories, among them stagings of plays by Shakespeare and Ionesco, a musical done in the style of a Chinese Opera and last year's hit of the Festival, a two-character chamber musical about the 1930s thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb.
This year's MITF will hold court in three separate spaces, all of which are situated on West 36th Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues. Two of the venues will be located in the WorkShop Theatre space, at 312 West 36th Street, on the 4th floor. These theatres sit 65 and 40 people, respectively.
The third location for MITF5 will be the 38-seat Where Eagles Dare Theatre, located on the ground floor at 347 West 36th Street-just up the block from the WorkShop Theatre.
MITF application forms can be downloaded from the Festival website at www.midtownfestival.org. (No submissions without an application form will be accepted.) All materials should be sent, along with a $30.00 application fee, to the Midtown International Theatre Festival, c/o John Chatterton, Where Eagles Dare, 347 West 36th Street, 12th Floor, New York, New York, 10018.#
The Midtown International Theatre Festival was created to give a forum to plays and musicals that might not otherwise be seen, but for them to have a chance to explode on the MITF stage, they first need to be submitted. So send us your scripts. Remember, the Tony Award may be only a few steps away!
