PLAY SELECTION

Play Submission Guidelines

Whidbey Playhouse (WP) is a community theater that typically presents a balanced season of five plays and musicals that consist of comedies, dramas, mysteries, and other styles. A play’s cast size may be as few as two and as large as 40 or more! Generally, suggestions for mounting productions will come from those who are interested in directing, but the playhouse also invites members and volunteers to submit titles that they feel would be good candidates for the WP mainstage season. Whether you’re a potential director or a member, all criteria must be completed at the time of submission.

Play selection committee

We are a volunteer committee that meets every other week for four to five months to discuss plays and musicals that might be potentials for our next season.

If you would like to be a part of our committee, watch for information in early summer when the new committee is forming. Our current committee meetings are already underway for the 2025-2026 season. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and make sure we have your current email address for communicating with you about a variety of playhouse activities.

What do members of the Play Selection Committee do?

Reading and evaluating commercially published plays and musicals. Looking for ideas? Check our playhouse library in the Star Studio, order your own personal copy online if desired, research online to see if a pdf version or other materials are available for download, check with other members on the team to see if any of them has a copy, and if all fails—have Play Selection Chair order a copy that will utilize budgeted funds to cover the expense. There are free plays on the Internet, and subscription services like Scribd.

Add your play’s submission to the spreadsheet. Choose shows that you think have the potential for being one of the five top shows on our season.
Report back to the committee at our next meeting on the plays you have read that you think might be good candidates. Ensure that there is a paper script available, or a link where others can read it (or watch it) online. YouTube is a great resource.
Leave plays or copies of plays in the committee’s mailbox in the mailroom at the theater that you think are worthy possibilities. If it is not, return your script to the library or to the loaner. Please do not leave it in the box. Feel free to jot down your thoughts about the play on paper and leave it inside the script. Be sure the title is on your paper, in case it becomes separated from the script.
Help to organize and take part in play readings to be held at the theater, at your home, or other designated area. This is especially important for works that are unknown to the general theater membership.
Help the committee narrow the list to 10-12 entries for Play Day (First Sunday in February). Entries need to represent a balanced slate of plays and musicals. Play Day’s event may have interested directors attached to a specific show—or it might not. It is not mandatory that the presentations have a director lined up.
Help present the Play Day selections; or at minimum, coordinate with those who are presenting and make sure the entries are made ready for a public event. We will determine more about that process as we get closer to the end.
Once the membership has voted at Play Day and the ballots have been tallied, help the committee decide a balanced slate of shows with directors attached (hopefully). The final slate of shows will be presented to the board of directors to get their approval at the Feb board meeting.
Encourage and invite others to consider directing a show and applying to do so through the established process