David Mamet

Have you always wanted to try your hand at being a playwright? Now is your chance! As part of Goodman Theatre's upcoming David Mamet Festival, you are invited to walk a mile in this great Chicagoan's shoes by writing a Mamet play of your very own.

As part of Goodman Theatre’s seven-week David Mamet Festival, aspiring writers and Mamet fans are invited to pen a short play in the same unique style as the celebrated Chicago native playwright.  The David Mamet Write-Alike Contest is open to anyone in the Chicago-area; Goodman’s artistic staff and guest celebrity judges will review entries and announce winners in early March, to coincide with Festival kick-off.  Entries may be received by U.S. mail and e-mail- Deadline is February 17. 

Inspired by A Life in the Theatre—one of Mamet’s most significant early plays that premiered at the Goodman in 1977 and is the centerpiece of the Festival—scenes should be penned in one of the following styles: a “backstage” scene between the actors performing in a Mamet play (example: backstage at a production of American Buffalo or Boston Marriage); a scene between characters from two or more different Mamet plays (example: between Carol in Oleanna and the guys from Glengarry Glen Ross); a scene from a play that might be found in a repertory theater’s repertoire as adapted by Mamet (example: Mamet’s Private Lives, or Mamet’s Arsenic and Old Lace).

Plays must be written as drama, in script form and include an introduction.  Submissions may have a maximum of four characters—male or female, any age range—and not exceed three pages in length.  Winning scripts will receive a public reading during the Festival and prizes, including free tickets to A Life in the Theatre directed by Artistic Director Robert Falls. 

Goodman Theatre’s David Mamet Festival showcases the astonishing breadth of work of one of America’s (and Chicago’s) greatest playwrights, from the corrosively profane to the gently lyrical, from early classics such as 1972’s The Duck Variations to his most recent hit farce, Romance (2005).  A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, as well as renowned filmmaker and theater director, Mamet has enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration with Goodman that includes more than one dozen works, beginning in 1975 with the world premiere of American Buffalo.  Mamet fans can see five unique performances with  the Mamet Festival package, which starts at $70 and includes A Life in the Theatre, Romance and all three programs of one-acts.