Description
The Voaden Prize is a national playwriting competition. It was established in 1993 and held its first competition in 1997. The Voaden Prize is offered biennially.
Submissions will be accepted starting December 15, 2024 and ending at midnight on February 15, 2025. See below for instructions and the link to the entry payment page.
Prizes
First Prize: $10,000 along with a 3-day workshop of the winning script, culminating in a staged reading of the play followed by a talk-back session at the Kingston WritersFest.
Second Prize: $5,000
Honourable Mentions: Written critiques by the final round adjudicators.
Who was Herman Voaden?
Herman Voaden (1903-1991) graduated from Queen’s University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1923, followed by a Master of Arts in 1926. He was a Canadian playwright, director, and theatrical innovator and was a lifelong champion of Canadian culture. Herman Voaden was one of the most significant playwrights in Canada prior to the Second World War. Voaden championed a multimedia form of theatre that he called “Symphonic Expression” that integrated artistic lighting effects, “sprach-stimmung,” music, dance, and unusual sets. He was the head of the Canadian Arts Council (1945-1948), The Canadian Conference of the Arts (1966-1968), and the Canadian Guild of Crafts (1968-1970). He received the Order of Canada in 1974.
Entry Guidelines
- Open to any Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
- Only one play per playwright.
- Only full-length plays in English will be accepted. Legal clearance of all adapted material not in the public domain is the responsibility of the playwright. For the purposes of this competition, “full-length” is defined as a play with an estimated run time of one hour or longer.
- Plays cannot have been previously produced, published, contracted, or commissioned by a professional theatre.
- The First Prize-winning playwright will be given a professional three-day workshop of their winning script in fall 2025 at Queen’s University and a public staged reading of the play, followed by a talk-back session. The winning playwright will be invited to attend, and may be asked to appear as a guest, in some classes offered by the DAN School of Drama and Music. The workshop will also be open to attendance by students of the DAN School of Drama and Music. By entering the competition, the playwright agrees to this provision.
- The First and Second Prize-winning plays may be distributed to some classes at the DAN School of Drama and Music in the 2025 Fall term to supplement the curriculum. By entering the competition, the playwright agrees to this provision.
Submission Procedure
- Submissions will be accepted from December 15, 2024, to February 15, 2025, with the winners announced in June 2025.
- Prior to submitting your script for consideration, please pay the entry fee of $65 CAD (per submitted play) by Visa or MasterCard only through the secure event page.
- Once the entry fee payment is confirmed, please submit one PDF copy of the play being entered. Scripts will only be accepted through email. Send entries to jms31@queensu.ca and include contact information and the payment confirmation email from each entry fee paid.
- The playwright’s name must not appear anywhere in the text of the entry, only on the Entry Payment Form. The preferred font is Times or Courier in 12-point size. The pages of the document should be numbered in the header or footer. The PDF should be saved with only the title as the file name (e.g. AMidsummerNightsDream.pdf).
- We are no longer accepting musicals, although plays that include incidental music are welcome. Entries involving music should be accompanied by an MP3 file of the recorded music and lyrics. Sheet music will also be accepted, but please ensure that all reference to the composer, lyricist and/or playwright is excluded from the submission.
- Entries are handled with care and confidentiality, but the Dan School of Drama and Music cannot assume responsibility for lost or damaged files. Receipt of entry will be confirmed by a reply email.
