Seton Hill University’s Theatre and Dance Department is seeking musical theatre songwriters for a new musical theatre project, "Songs of Suffrage," which will celebrate the lives of women who have taken part in advancing the women's suffragist movement. Writers are asked to submit proposals and, ultimately, songs and/or musicalized scenes that focus on a person, a story, or a moment of any suffragist in history. Though we expect the project will focus on U.S. history, proposals on any figures in world history are welcome.  

Selected submissions will become part of a staged workshop premiere in April or May 2021 featuring Seton Hill University students.  Any interested persons are encouraged to offer proposals and submissions. In particular, the voices of women and persons of color are essential to the endeavor.   

Process and Deadlines:

October 1, 2020 Proposals Deadline:  This proposal deadline will function as a way to gauge the level of interest in the project and create a dialogue with writers to allow for a wide array of entries.  For instance, if multiple people propose to musicalize the same subject, this dialogue will give them the option to then choose different topics to increase the breadth of the project. With so many stories worthy of being told, the hope is to bring to light as many voices from this movement as possible.  

Please submit proposals using the SONGS OF SUFFRAGE PROPOSAL FORM.

December 15, 2020 Submissions Deadline:  Completed drafts of songs and, if applicable, dialogue/scenes, are due.  Multiple submissions will be welcomed.  Entries shouldn’t exceed 10 minutes.  A link and instructions for uploading submission materials will be available after October 1, 2020.

All submissions will be evaluated by a blind panel of Seton Hill theatre and music faculty who will offer scores and feedback on the music, writing, and potential for success within the workshop;  those comments and scores will be shared with the writers.  Based on these evaluations, a separate production team (workshop director Joseph Domencic and Seton Hill Theatre Faculty) will include as many pieces as possible in the final workshop process and production. In the event that the blind panel chooses more pieces than the production team can accommodate in the workshop performance, every effort will be made to include those submissions in a separate reading.

Workshop Timeline January-May, 2021:  The workshop process will take place as part of the Seton Hill spring semester in a class dedicated to this project. During mid-January through mid-April, writers may join in a virtual or face-to-face workshop process with the director, musical director, choreographers and performers, during which they may further develop their individual songs and the entire work as a whole. The workshop premiere will take place in late April or May.  Depending on the current health crisis, this project will be presented face-to-face and/or in a virtual format.

Beyond the Workshop: Based on the workshop, writers will be asked to consider as a group the future of the project.  Seton Hill or anyone associated with the project will not retain any rights to additional performances or excerpts of material from the final workshop without permission from the writers.

Questions may be directed to workshop director Joseph Domencic, Associate Professor of Musical Theatre at Seton Hill University, at domencic@setonhill.edu.

Seton Hill University is a Catholic, liberal arts university located in Greensburg, Pa., whose mission, in the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton and the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, is to educate students to think and act critically, creatively, and ethically as productive members of society committed to transforming the world.  The Theatre and Dance Department faculty and students aim to engage the community in a positive and vital way through works that embody this mission.