Please submit your “Intent to Participate” form by JANUARY 15.

All participants in this year’s Dramaturgy program will be considered for the LMDA/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award, take part in professional development workshops led by a nationally-recognized dramaturg, and potentially serve as dramaturgs in the ten-minute and one-act play festival.

Participants may also choose to be considered for the Program Note Award. More information below.

ELIGIBILITY
Who is eligible? Undergraduate and graduate students who work specifically as the dramaturg on a production or workshop, or who submit a “theoretical” project created for a dramaturgy class. If the project is a workshop or production, the student must be credited as the dramaturg. A student who also writes, directs, designs, performs in, or otherwise collaborates on a project will be responsible for articulating the boundaries of the dramaturgical work and speaking on its behalf. The student need not be enrolled full-time to submit work for this award, but we do encourage dramaturgs to attend the regional festival to represent their works. 

HOW TO APPLY
In a single PDF document not to exceed 100 pages, please include the following information:

• Title page, identifying the dramaturg, the project, and the school. Include your address, phone number, email address, and date of the project.
• Two brief statements written by the dramaturg, one describing the breadth and scope of the project and its challenges, the other describing the process from start to finish.
• Letter of nomination from a faculty member. If you wish, you may include more letters of support from persons directly related to the project – collaborating artists or audience members for a workshop or production, or fellow students/teachers in a classroom project. 
• Dramaturgy casebook or protocol. This might include highlights of research and information you provided to the cast, the designers, etc.; pictures of a lobby display; information from websites created; questions asked during the process; and information gathered for individual packets. We are not interested in seeing absolutely everything you researched, but in your analysis and compilation of materials researched.

You must include all of this information in the Intent to Participate form, due by January 15.

AWARD INFORMATION
The LMDA/KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award is designed to recognize contributions by student dramaturgs to the conception, development and production of theater within their colleges and universities, or to educational projects in dramaturgy. The philosophical foundation of this award – like that of dramaturgy itself – rests in the belief that art benefits from examination on the parts of both artist and audience, and that creative inspiration accompanied by analysis and reflection is most likely to lead to productions and projects that fulfill the spiritual, social and personal potential of the theatrical event.

Also inherent in the guidelines is the belief that the dramaturg should participate fully and uniquely in the collaborative act of making theater and in promoting social discourse around the theatrical event. To validate the significance of the dramaturg’s contributions – and to raise awareness of dramaturgy in the academic field – the Kennedy Center requires a letter of nomination from a faculty member.

This award is the result of a unique collaboration between Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), the professional association of dramaturgs and literary managers working in North America, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF), a national program dedicated to improving the quality of college and university theater in the United States. Professional dramaturgs and members of LMDA who live in each region will select the winner of that region’s LMDA/KCACTF Student Award in Dramaturgy.

AWARD CRITERIA
Distinctiveness: What is creative about the dramaturg’s approach and/or analysis?

Contextualization: How is the production or project enhanced by dramaturgical analysis or research; alternatively, how is the academic project in dramaturgy imaginatively projected into a larger social, political, academic or artistic setting?

Impact: In what ways are the audience, artists or institution enriched by dramaturgical ideas and execution

Process: how much and in what ways is the dramaturg involved with the entire process. How did he or she contribute to the process outside of initial research and putting together packets?

Ethics: How are issues that might be raised by the terms of the collaboration or changing responsibilities dealt with and/or resolved?

Significance: How does this project inform, challenge, or advance the field of dramaturgy, in general and/or within the student’s school? 

REGIONAL/NATIONAL AWARD OPPORTUNITIES

Regional Fellowship recipients will receive a one-year paid membership in LMDA, consideration for an all-expense-paid residency at the National Festival at the Kennedy Center in mid-April, and multi-day workshops with leading artists in both production and new-play dramaturgy. The recipients of the National LMDA/KCACTF Fellowships may also receive residencies with the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.

Learn more about the National KCACTF program here.

PROGRAM NOTE AWARD
The Program Note Award recognizes the work of student dramaturgs who write engaging, informative program note for participating or associate KCACTF entries during this festival year (January-December). Entrants submit an application form, as well as a copy of the note as it appeared in the program of a participating or associate status production.