SF Improv Theater | Un-Scripted Theater Company

Theater doesn't get any more live than this

533 Sutter St, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94102 USA

(415) 322-8738

Un-Scripted Theater Company creates smart, innovative, and entertaining improvised theater that delights audiences and advances the craft and art of improvisation.

Call for Playwright Submissions…

Un-Scripted Theater Company is once again embarking on a production that, ironically, has us looking for scripts!

Act One, Scene Two features playwrights in collaboration with our improvisational theater company. One of our most popular shows, Act One, Scene Two first opened in 2011, and was revived in 2012, 2014 and 2016. It returns this November 8 – 23, on Fridays and Saturdays.

Read about how the show and submissions work below and submit here.

***SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS JULY 31, 2019***

How the Show Works

  • Playwrights submit the opening scene of what could be a full-length play.

  • Un-Scripted’s dramaturg interviews the playwright live on stage the night of the show.

  • Un-Scripted’s ensemble then performs a cold reading of the script.

  • After the dialogue is complete, the cast continues with improvised dialogue for the remainder of the full-length play.

  • The entire evening lasts approximately 2 hours, with an intermission.

How Submissions Work

  • Write us the “opening scene” of a play (5 – 9 pages in length) in any genre. This could be a complete opening scene or just the start of it, or it could be made up of multiple short scenes — but it should not be a completed play.

  • The size of the cast is up to you. Your submission could comprise as few as 3 characters or as many as 12. You could also write in descriptions of characters that do not appear in the first scene but who you envision appearing later in the play.  

  • While we perform our shows without elaborate set pieces, costumes, or props, we'd like you to conceive of the piece as you normally would, as a script to be performed by a theater company. Things can be left open, or you can feel free to specify a style, genre, setting, etc. 

How to Submit

Submit your scene here by July 31, 2019.

Notes

  • Performances take place on Friday and Saturday evenings at Un-Scripted Theater Company near San Francisco’s Union Square.

  • If your piece happens to revolve around one particular important object (prop/costume piece), please make that clear in the script and/or bring that specific object to the show for us to use. 

  • We can arrange to have a musician present; if you'd like your piece to be a musical, you can specify that, and even write lyrics in the first 5–9 pages that our actors will make into an improvised song.