AITAF Bridge Award for Playwriting
Official Competition Rules
Participation constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules. The AITAF Bridge Award for Playwriting Competition (“Competition”) is held by Arts in the Armed Forces, 220 36th Street, B520, Brooklyn, New York (“Host”).
PARTICIPATION DATES AND PROMOTION STRUCTURE: The Competition will open at 12:00:01 AM Eastern Standard Time on December 10, 2021 and ends on 11:59:59 PM Eastern Standard Time on January 10, 2022 (“Submission Period”). One (1) Winner will be selected from among all eligible submissions received during the Submission Period and announced on or approximately on May 1, 2022.
ELIGIBILITY: The Competition is open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia who are age 18 or over and currently serve or have previously served in the United States military at the time of entry. Individuals stationed on U.S. military bases overseas are eligible to enter. Employees, representatives, agents, officers, and directors of Host (including competition judges) and all its respective parents, subsidiaries, members, divisions, affiliates, advertising, promotion, and fulfillment agencies (“Host and Promotion Parties”), and those individuals who are immediate family members of Host and Promotion Parties, or persons living in the same household as, or domiciled with, Host and Promotion Parties, are not eligible to participate in the Competition. “Immediate family” means parents, siblings, children and spouse. Void where prohibited. All federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply.
HOW TO ENTER: During the Submission Period, entrants must submit one (1) full-length, completed manuscript of a play meeting the submission requirements below to the following website: https://aitaf.org/bridge-award-for-playwriting/. Entrants must submit the play as a single PDF file with the title in the following format: “Title of Play.PDF.” Each entrant must also submit at the time of entry a brief statement not exceeding 250 words describing the entrant’s current or prior military service, including dates of service, military branch, and foreign countries served in, if applicable. No other method of entry is accepted. Any entries submitted before or after the Submission Period will be disqualified. Limit one entry per person.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: To be considered as eligible, an entry:
- Must be a full-length, completed play
- Must not be a musical, screenplay, one act play, children’s play, adaptation, translation, or fan
fiction play
- Must be the entrant’s own original work and cannot be co-authored
- Must be typed in the English language
- Must not have been previously produced or published. (Plays that have had a workshop, reading,
or non-professional production are permitted).
- Must not be under option, commissioned, or scheduled for professional production or publication
at the time of submission
- Must not violate the intellectual property rights of any third party
All entries are considered final; once an entrant submits an entry, no further drafts or revisions to the entry are permitted. By submitting an entry, entrant warrants and represents that he/she consents to the submission and use of the entry in the Competition and to its use as otherwise set forth herein. Personal information gathered about entrants will be used solely for the administration of the Competition and will not be sold or distributed to third parties besides Host and Promotion Parties. Entries that do not meet the criteria above may be automatically disqualified. All decisions regarding the submission requirements are made by Host in its sole discretion and are final. Entries will not be returned.
WINNER SELECTION: Three (3) to five (5) Finalists and one (1) Winner will be selected from among all eligible entries. As this is a skill competition, the odds of winning depend on the number of entries received and the relative merit of the entrants as demonstrated through judging by Host’s representatives.
Judging for the Finalists and Winner will be conducted by a panel of independent, qualified professional readers designated by Host, with final decisions made by the panel chairperson. The Winning play will be selected by the Head Judge according to the Judge's assessment of the artistic craft demonstrated, the uniqueness of the author's voice, and the power of the play's themes. Plays containing military themes or content will not be afforded any special consideration during judging.
Finalists will be notified on or about April 15th, 2022. Host will set up an interview with each Finalist, which may be conducted in person or by phone, at the mutual convenience of Finalist and Host. One Winner will be selected by Host from among all Finalists. The Winner will be announced publicly on or approximately on May 1, 2022.
The Finalist selected by the Host to be the Winner will be notified in advance of the public announcement. In order to be awarded a prize and declared the Winner, a selected Finalist must pass a background check and sign and complete a General Release of Liability and Nondisclosure Agreement and return it to Host within 10 days of the date of receipt of the Grand Prize Winner notification. Host is not responsible for and shall not be liable for late, lost, misdirected, or unsuccessful efforts to deliver the notification to selected Finalists. If a selected Finalist is ineligible, fails to claim a prize, fails to successfully pass the background check, or fails to timely return the completed and executed General Release of Liability and Nondisclosure Agreement within 10 days of initial contact, the prize may be forfeited and awarded to an alternate Finalist. If the selected Finalist has moved to a different address, it is the sole responsibility of the selected Finalist to notify the Host or designated agent of the selected Finalist’s new address. Host is not responsible for any undeliverable prize deliveries due to change of address.
PRIZE: The Winner will receive: (a) a $10,000 prize; (b) a reading of the Winner’s play produced by Host with a professional director and cast, a reception and feedback session; and (c) an award presented at the reading. The reading of the winning play will take place in New York, NY unless the Winner is on active military duty, in which case Host may arrange for the reading to take place on the Winner’s military base, pending location. Active Duty Military personnel must be granted approval to receive the prize by their chain of command. No alternative prizes or substitution is permitted, except by Host in its sole discretion in the event of prize unavailability. Prizes are not transferable or convertible to cash. Winner is subject to verification. Taxes of any kind, including all federal, state, provincial and/or local taxes, are the sole responsibility of Winner. Winner will be issued an IRS 1099 form for all prizes above $600 USD, where applicable.
HOST’S RIGHTS IN WINNING MANUSCRIPT: By accepting a prize, Winner grants Host the nonexclusive right to use, display, print, reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works from, promote and provide access to the entry materials, which include but are not limited to the entrant’s play manuscript, in any media throughout the world, and without additional consideration. Each entrant waives moral rights in such entry materials. Hosts’ rights do not include the right to commercialize Winner’s play for profit. Host’s rights shall begin when the first prize is awarded and end two (2) years thereafter. Host acknowledges that all copyright in and to the winning play remains with Winner. Winner grants Host the rights to use entrant’s name, voice, and/or likeness for the purpose of inclusion on a winner’s list, and in advertising, trade, or promotion, without further compensation worldwide in perpetuity and in any form of media including the Internet, unless prohibited by law.
OTHER CONDITIONS: By participating in the Competition, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Host, which shall be final. Host is not responsible for and shall not be liable for: (i) telephone, electronic, hardware or software program, network, Internet, or computer malfunctions, failures, or difficulties of any kind; (ii) failed, incomplete, garbled, or delayed computer transmissions; (iii) any condition caused by events beyond the control of Host that may cause the Competition to be disrupted or corrupted; (iv) any injuries, losses, or damages of any kind arising in connection with or as a result of any prize, or acceptance, possession, or use of any prize, or from participation in the Competition; or (v) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Competition. Host reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend or cancel the Competition at any time if a computer virus, bug, tampering, unauthorized intervention, or other technical problem of any sort corrupts the administration, security, or proper play of the Competition. Host reserves the right to cancel the Competition or change any element thereof, with or without notice, at any time, due to printing errors, web site errors, transmission errors or other mistakes or problems in the production or administration of the Competition. Host also reserves the right to disqualify, in its sole discretion, any person tampering with the entry process, the operation of the website, or who is otherwise in violation of the Official Rules. By participating, entrants agree that all disputes will be resolved in the appropriate courts in the state of New York, exclusively, and subject to the laws of the state of New York, unless otherwise required by law.
By participating in the Competition, each entrant agrees to release and hold Host and its employees, officers, directors, agents, representatives, parents, members, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion, and fulfillment agencies, and legal advisors, harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind in connection with the Competition or resulting from acceptance, possession, or use of any prize, including without limitation, personal injury, death, and property damage, and claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy, to the extent permitted by law.
CONTACT US: If you have any questions, comments or complaints regarding the Competition, please contact Host through the “Contact Us” page on Host’s website, https://aitaf.org/contact/, or by mail at 220 36th Street, B520, Brooklyn, NY 11232.
WINNERS’ NAMES: The Winner will be posted to the AITAF website, aitaf.org, on or about May 1, 2022 and available until approximately June 1, 2022.
Download Official Rules
