Play Reading Guidelines

Thank you for agreeing to read plays for Thunderclap Productions.  We ask that you read five plays a month and report back with one of the following:

RECOMMEND FOR PRODUCTION
You love this play/musical, think it fits our mission statement, and recommend that we consider it for production. Based on your recommendation, the play will be forwarded to the board of directors for consideration. Please be highly selective.  We ask that you recommend  no more than about a third of the plays you read.

DO NOT RECOMMEND FOR PRODUCTION
This play/musical isn’t strong or compelling enough for us to produce it. Based on your recommendation, the playwright will receive a notification that his/her play/musical has not been selected for production.

RECOMMEND FOR A SECOND READING
While the play or musical fits parts of our mission, you aren’t sure if it is a strong match. You’d like to pass this play/musical on to another reader and have him/her make a recommendation on the work.

Criteria for Play or Musical Selection

  1. Does it fit our mission? We’re interested in presented new and under-represented (under-performed or lesser known) plays and musicals.
  2. Scope: We produce on relatively small budgets. If the play or musical would require a large budget (for venue, sets, props, effects, etc.) and could not be scaled down and remain effective, it’s not a good match for us.
  3. Genre: We allow plays of all lengths/genres except children’s plays and religious plays, neither of which we produce.
  4. Quality: What is your assessment of the quality of the work? Is the writing compelling?  Would this make for powerful theatre for Houston audiences?
  5. Preferences: While we are not exclusively committed to these works, we are especially interested in works that offer powerful and challenging theatrical experiences and/or works that have strong social messages. These works could be dramas or comedies, plays or musicals.

Reading Guidelines

  • Please read at least the first 10 pages of each submission. If the writing is compelling enough to keep going, please read to the end or until you reach a decision not to recommend it.
  • Please only recommend plays that you have read to completion and musicals that you have read to completion and listened to at least three of the songs.
  • Please email us within a month of receiving your plays to read at info@thunderclapproductions.com with your recommendation for each play to recommend it, not recommend it, or recommend it be passed on to another reader (see the descriptions of each of these at the top).
  • Do not communicate with any of the writers.  If you have a question or need further information, let us know and we’ll reach out to them.
  • If you’re assigned a play/musical from a writer you know personally, let us know and we’ll send you a different play to read.