The Center of the World Festival

Theme Rules

The play theme must adhere to Eco-Drama topics.

Can your play contribute to an answer to any of these questions:

**How can we facilitate environmental justice and sustainability in our community, our nation, our world?

**What is the new vision, a new approach, to resolving the environmental challenges which face our families, jobs, communities, or nation?

**Are the crises in nature "normal" and a "part of life" to which we just have to resign ourselves and let "people in power" handle for us?

**Does "everyperson" have any power to change the negative environmental direction towards which the fear and violence perpetrating political systems are taking us?

Your play may be an imaginative journey into harmony between humankind and nature. Or, it may be based upon real-life experiences. Or, it may be a combination of both. Suggestions: The swapping of tales with colleagues--the journeys of your own life--interviews held with others--all represent the dramatic scenes through which the "everyperson" innately connects with nature with knowledge revealed to us "on the spot" as the way to interact with nature.

We believe that social CHANGE is possible for the challenging environmental issues facing our world. We believe that theatre plays a powerful role in this change, providing a meeting ground for exploring alternative solutions. Story-telling is mankind's oldest format for social education. Through the sharing of stories, which facilitate community dialogue, we build understanding and inspire social change.

We are not seeking "eco-warrier" appoaches to this social problem. We do not wish to engage in a negative political process or radical activism. Nor is this a quest for "enlightenment" of the population. Give us real problems and real solutions--an "everyperson" approach to creating peace and harmony with our environment and mother nature.

In life, there is not always an immediate solution to a situation. So, in your play, the solution may not be realized. But the process of thinking, of criticizing, observing, and trying to find solutions will help in ending the paralysis of fatalism, that we cannot do anything to change the environmental destruction in our world. Your play should contribute to changing the audience member from being a mere spectator to someone who awakens and questions: Is it good or not, do I agree or not. And most importantly, causes the observer to say: Yes, I CAN do that!

We believe that equality and inclusion are necessary for confronting and resolving the violence which surrounds us and is threatening to destroy our world. Thus, this playwrighting competition is for all amateurs, of all ages, to contribute their vision for a civilization which lives in harmony with nature. It is not a competition of "best construction" or conventional play presentation. Abstract and experimental formats are welcomed as a way to express environmental values.

Remember, AMATEUR is the operative description of this playwright competition. We define AMATEUR in its positive Latin and French roots, meaning: "to love; a lover". We see you, the AMATEUR, as a devoted friend, an enthusiastic pursuer of an objective, and one who is motived to work as a result of love and passion. And further, in the meaning of Ralph Waldo Emerson, as one who performs for pleasure rather than money: "Every artist is first an amateur."