Submission for the THE AROJAH STUDENTS PLAYWRITING PRIZE 2021: A STAGE ADAPTATION OF JP CLARK'S POEM, THE CASUALTIES is still open till MAY 31, 2021.
If you are a student of any of Nigeria's tertiary institutions - Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education etc, you are qualified to participate in this annual contest and win various categories of cash prizes and publication in an anthology of selected plays from the competition.
See details below:
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
i. All entries must be submitted within the stipulated deadline. Failure to meet all stated conditions will lead to outright disqualification.
ii. Entries must be full length ONE-ACT PLAYS.
iii . Entries must be an adaptation/transposition of John Pepper Clark's THE CASUALTIES. The competition is in honour of the Nigerian literary icon.
iv . Entries can be in any form of the playwright's choice - comedy, parody, monologue, tragedy etc.
v . Any play previously performed, published or currently in consideration for other competitions is not qualified to enter for this competition.
vii . Submission must be in word document sent as an attachment with the subject column reading: TASPP 2021
viii . Complete contact information, including full contact address, email(s), phone number(s) social media handles and a brief (50 word) bio of participating student playwright should accompany each submission, on a separate sheet.
ix. All submissions should be sent to [email protected] on or before 31 May 2021.
x . Multiple entries by the same playwright would not be allowed.
Also note that:
i. A panel of judges for this competition would be announced in due course.
ii. The selection of the judges, approved by the Management and Board of Patrons of Arojah Royal Theatre, shall be final.
iii. A longlist of ten (10) plays would be announced in July 2021.
iv. Announcement of winners and award ceremony will hold in September/October 2021
THE PRIZES
The winner will clinch a monetary prize of N150,000, certificate and a medal of honour while the two runners up get N50,000 consolation prizes each with certificates.
The three winning plays will be published in an anthology of new plays.
THE CASUALTIES by John Pepper Clark:
The casualties are not only those who are dead.
They are well out of it.
The casualties are not only those who are dead.
Though they await burial by installment.
The casualties are not only those who are lost
Persons or property, hard as it is
To grope for a touch that some
May not know is not there.
The casualties are not only those led away by night.
The cell is a cruel place, sometimes a haven.
Nowhere as absolute as the grave.
The casualties are not only those who started
A fire and now cannot put out. Thousands
Are burning that have no say in the matter.
The casualties are not only those who are escaping.
The shattered shall become prisoners in
A fortress of falling walls.
The casualties are many, and a good number as well
Outside the scenes of ravage and wreck;
They are the emissaries of rift,
So smug in smoke-rooms they haunt abroad,
They do not see the funeral piles
At home eating up the forests.
They are wandering minstrels who, beating on
The drums of the human heart, draw the world
Into a dance with rites it does not know.
The drums overwhelm the guns…
Caught in the clash of counter claims and charges
When not in the niche others left,
We fall.
All casualties of the war.
Because we cannot hear each other speak.
Because eyes have ceased the face from the crowd.
Because whether we know or
Do not the extent of wrongs on all sides,
We are characters now other than before
The war began, the stay-at-home unsettled.
By taxes and rumours, the looters for office
And wares, fearful everyday the owners may return.
We are all casualties,
All sagging as are
The cases celebrated for kwashiorkor.
The unforeseen camp-follower of not just our war.
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There is still time for you to make your submission. KINDLY SHARE.....
For Enquiries:
Paul Liam, +234 703 019 5010
Om'Oba Jerry Adesewo, +234 805 277 1123.