what is the best way to market plays I've written?

Answer 1

It depends on what sort of play it is. For a major musical, you're going to have to get an agent and talk a production company into performing it.

For most plays, the easiest thing to do is to let one of the major publishers do the work for you. They have catalogs of plays, which many theater groups read, and will handle the royalty arrangements for you.

Answer 2

There are a lot of smaller theater companies out there that produce specifically new works. There are quite a few just here in Chicago. You would need to submit you scripts to them for review. They all have different rules for submissions, and many have contests, festivals, etc for new works as well.

My boyfriend is a playwright, and what he does is keep an ongoing spreadsheet of the companies he thinks would be interested in the type of work he does. It's something you've got to be constantly aware of, since small theater companies are formed and ended all the time and they all focus on something different.

Good luck!

Answer 3

first thing(assuming you live in the U.S.) you should do is register them with the copy write office.
then second, there are several books on the market that will give names and addresses of places that purchase everything from plays to poems to stories.

Answer 4

Contact the Community Theater in the city where you live, ask if they are interested in doing readings of your plays or producing them.

You don't have to do anything to "officially" to copyright your work.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wccc

Answer 5

Here's a competition I heard about recently (if you are in high school): http://www.vsarts.org/x1548.xml

Also, look up Smith and Kraus. They publish lots of new plays