IT IS TIME. IT IS TIME FOR THE CONTEST.

In case you've forgotten or you're here for the first time, the 30-Day Prompt-Play Contest has some wonderful prizes!

1^st Place (for Best Overall Script): 6 months Premium Membership (PM) & 3 Critiques
2^nd Place: 3 months PM & 2 Critiques
3^rd Place: 1 month PM & 1 Critique

1^st Place (for Best Individual Scene): 6 months Premium Membership (PM) & 3 Critiques
2^nd Place: 3 months PM & 2 Critiques
3^rd Place: 1 month PM & 1 Critique

All you have to do is write a 5-Scene 1-Act Script of no more than 3,000 words within the 720 hours of the contest from June 1-30! It can be any genre and can be meant for screen, stage, radio wave, or graphic novel page.

---

You will have to incorporate 3 prompts into your script. Below is the list of categories and corresponding prompts. If you want to participate in the contest, comment on this journal! We will reply to you as soon as we can with 3 random numbers (1–10). You will pick your prompts accordingly.

For example...

If you were assigned the numbers 1, 2, and 3, you could choose to use Scenario #1, Theme #2, and Character #3. Or you could choose to use Quote #1, Quote #2, and Quote #3. Or feel free to mix and match as you like!

Once you receive your numbers, reply to us with the prompts you have chosen. Then get writing!

---

• You can start writing anytime within the 720 hours of the contest. We will be answering requests for numbers throughout the month, though due to our schedules, it might take a few hours for us to get back to you. Don't miss out—request sooner rather than later!

• Each participant may submit one (1) script only. The 5 scenes of this 1-Act script should be submitted as a single deviation to the contest folder (open now closed now).
  

• Members of House of Playwrights and our affiliates are welcome to participate. If you are not a member and wish to participate, you're welcome to join House-of-Playwrights for the duration of the contest and withdraw membership upon the conclusion of the event. No strings attached.

• All genres are accepted, but please adhere to the House of Playwrights content policy.

• The total script should be no more than 3,000 words long. (That's an average of 600 words per scene.) This word count limit includes dialogue, stage directions, character descriptions, etc.!

---

THE PROMPT LIST

Quotes

1. Bide your time, and everything becomes clear.
2. Did I miss a meeting?
3. Every passing minute is a chance to turn it all around.
4. Must we live for the dead?
5. If you want me to stop, tell me now.
6. Honor the people you love, the ideals you cherish, and the man inside you.
7. First, we have to focus on more immediate goals.
8. Nowadays, the world is lit by lightning!
9. Remembering's dangerous.
10. So you dared to come back.

Scenarios

1. When a character crosses to the other side of the prison bars, (s)he discovers a school very different from kindergarten.
2. A repentant murderer is given the opportunity to go back in time and kill himself as a child.
3. A warrior rises up the ranks, escapes incredible dangers, and defeats foe after foe – only to be betrayed by less-idealistic countrymen.
4. After years of total isolation, a character must (re)learn basic social skills.
5. Two characters' honeymoon blurs into a homicide. Love begins, and love ends.
6. A neutrally-aligned mercenary alternates between jobs on both sides of the war.
7. A long-banished servant returns to the royal palace—to take over the throne, or to beg forgiveness?
8. A character chooses to be hypnotized by a loved one and to hypnotize an enemy (or vice versa).
9. Just before the execution, a murderer is given a chance at gaining absolution.
10. A character has been lying to the Boss, but the truth is quickly catching up.

Themes

1. Standing on Principle
2. Justice/Mercy
3. Love's Not for Everyone
4. Dance
5. Only a Job
6. Patriotism
7. Losing One's Voice
8. Money
9. Everyone's Got an Opinion
10. Intelligence, Insulted

Characters

1. An interplanetary wanderer with a penchant for raspberry gelato
2. A highly skilled, yet insecure, artist born without eyes
3. The creator of a universe
4. A forgiving crime victim
5. An oyster-monger who always smells of salt and fish-guts
6. The only happy member of a miserable family (or vice-versa)
7. An ex-convict who sometimes believes she (or he) is still in prison
8. A housekeeper/butler struggling against a language barrier
9. The living embodiment of Sinfulness (or of Saintliness)
10. An under-paid, under-appreciated, knife-wielding henchman

---

---