Call for Scripts: Seeking short plays set in bars for readings

Ghostlight Ensemble is seeking short scripts (under 30 minutes) for a staged reading series at Black Eagle Club. The only requirement is that the scripts are set at a bar.

This is open to playwrights in any geographic area, though writers in the greater Chicago area will receive priority. There is no payment for selection, but there is also no fee to submit.

Selected plays will be presented in a series of staged readings during the spring of 2025 as part of our revamped series of live events at Black Eagle.

Pieces can be previously produced and playwrights may submit more than one play.

Electronic submissions only, please. Please submit a brief synopsis of script in the body of your email, along with contact information, and attach a copy of the full script to Maria Burnham at scripts@ghostlightensemble.com. Please use the following format in the email’s subject line: Bar Project Script Submission: [play name] - [playwright name]

The deadline for submissions is March 2, 2025.

For Women's History Month: Plays for Women! at the Driehaus Museum in March

Ghostlight Ensemble presents Plays for Women!: A collection of overlooked suffrage plays — a reading of short suffrage works, most of them largely unknown and rarely performed, to coincide with March as Women’s History Month. This is a co-production with the Richard H. Driehaus Museum and is part of Ghostlight's For Your (Re)Consideration series.

The reading takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, in the Nickerson Ballroom at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum (40 East Erie St., Chicago, IL 60611).

The short works that make up Plays for Women! are: Something to Vote For by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, An Anti-Suffragist or the Other Side by H.M. Paull, The Mother’s Meeting by Mrs. Harlow Phibbs and Lady Geraldine’s Speech by Beatrice Harraden.

The reading is directed by Ensemble member Holly Robison and runs about 90 minutes with an intermission. A brief talkback will follow.