Performance Dates

Become a Short Attention Span Theatre (SAST) Sponsor and See Your Name in Lights!

Purchase a sponsorship during Garfield Center for the Arts’ Short Attention Span Theatre playfest for only $10 and you’ll see your name or a special message (keep it clean, folks!) projected on stage during intermission at all 9 SAST performances AND listed in the program booklet (if you choose). Businesses can purchase a sponsorship and include name, logo, and/or a message for $25. All sponsorship entries must be received no later than 3 pm on Friday, June 7th.

SAST will run for 3 weekends: June 19 – July 5. The play fest showcases a range of actors, directors and authors–featuring original works by local and regional playwrights. Performances are at 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays and Saturdays at 2 pm. Tickets are $15, and $5 for students. Plays include some adult content and may not be suitable for children under 14. Purchase your tickets online at www.garfieldcenter.org, call 410.810.2060, or visit the Garfield Box Office at 210 High Street in Chestertown.

Use the form below to submit your entry. You will be prompted upon completion to make your payment.

SAST Call for Scripts

Every year, we ask for you to submit for The Garfield Center’s Short Attention Span Theatre (SAST). We have even sent out announcements about this year’s event.

Because of COVID-19, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s live performance version of the event.

BUT WAIT… DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL… 

We STILL intend to present an online, streamed version of SAST this year. As you probably know, the Garfield has been producing weekly content on Facebook under the banner of GCTV – The Garfield Streams the Arts, so this year’s version of SAST will be similar to what we are already doing with GCTV.

THE GOOD NEWS FOR YOU: Because we cannot stream copyrighted or royalty-owned scripts, ALL of this year’s SAST must be original pieces and will come exclusively from a pool of original local works! HOWEVER, because we’ll be streaming actors who are all isolating at home, there are specific things we are looking for in your script.

Here are guidelines that should be very helpful in getting it into our lineup:

• DURATION: Plays can be from 1 to 15 minutes long this time around.

• ALL EMPHASIS MUST BE ON THE SPOKEN WORD: Scripts should seem more like a radio script than a play script in that its content should occur in the dialogue.

• STAGE DIRECTIONS ARE WASTED: In this type of presentation, the actors will be literally sitting in chairs facing their webcams. They can’t and should not be moved away from close proximity to their webcam mic, or we will not be able to hear what they say.

• MINIMAL OR NO PHYSICAL MOVEMENT: Do not write in bits that involve physical movement unless it is something that a single actor can do on screen while seated.

• HOW TO HANDLE STAGE DIRECTIONS: If there are narration-assisted moments that absolutely must be given to make something between characters make sense (two characters kiss, for example, which actors won’t be able to do in separate homes miles from each other), write the action description like a book or novel would describe it and not like a play script would (the audience will not understand “down-center” or “upstage”).

• KEEP THE SCRIPT TO JUST A FEW CHARACTERS: The more characters you write into the script, the harder it will be for the audience to follow who is who and what is going on between them (staging solves this problem in a live performance, but we do not have that option here).

SAST will likely occur in August (specific dates are still being negotiated) to give more time to plan for it and get script submissions based on these guidelines. But we will also need to cast and rehearse the chosen scripts. So, please submit something to us no later than June 26th. We will send out an announcement about what we have chosen once all scripts are submitted and everyone has had a chance to read them.

Submission process:

• Please include a cover sheet with your contact information (email, phone, mobile).

• We anonymize submitted scripts before they are read by our panel of judges, so please refrain from putting your name anywhere except the cover sheet.  (Seriously, please don’t make our anonymizer’s job any harder — thanks!)

• You may write a new script or adapt an existing one.

• You may submit up to 6 scripts for consideration.

• Please send your scripts in PDF format.

• Your play will fare better if it is well formatted.  Look for links on the Live Playwrights’ Society site (https://liveplaywrightssociety.org/) for tips on formatting.

• Please email your submissions to sastplays@garfieldcenter.org

• The deadline for submissions is 11:59 pm Friday, June 26, 2020.

Here is our play selection process:

1. Submissions are anonymized and then read by our panel of judges.

2. Our panel of judges selects a number of submitted plays which are then offered to our group of directors.

3. You can see which plays made it through to directors on the SAST info page: https://www.garfieldcenter.org/sast/ (click Playwright)

4. Our directors select from this list .

5. We will announce our final selections on or near July 31st.

You may direct any additional questions to sarnold@garfieldcenter.org.

Mark Sullivan
SAST 2020 Executive Producer

Stay tuned for Director info!

Stay tuned for actor updates!