The Glitterbox 10-Minute Playfest is a celebration of short, creative, predominantly DIY/queer theater, hosted by the Glitterbox Theater’s in Pittsburgh, PA (210 W 8th Ave, Homestead, PA 15120)! The whole event is both an essential fundraiser to keep the lights on and pay the rent for Glitterbox, and a fabulous showcase of the generous talent and experimentation in the community. We hope you can join in the fun! If you’re a playwright, this is your time to shine If you’re an actor, get your playwright friend to write you a star vehicle! If you're both, we love all those hats you're wearing!
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The 39th Glitterbox Theater 10-Minute Playfest
Performance Dates: Friday, September 12th and Saturday, September 13th, 2025
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Doors at 7, Show at 7:30pm for both nights, Tickettes: $10-20 (NOTAFLOF)
Tech/Dress Rehearsal: Thursday Sept. 11th, 2025
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1.5hr slots, starting early afternoon, going late
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Participation Requirements:
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Participants construct and produce their plays (max of 10 minutes). There isn’t currently a flow for submitting scripts and then GBX finding people to produce them, although that could be rad in the future.
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Participants recruit their performers and designers, create their sets, and find rehearsal space. (Though we are happy to send casting/crew calls to our Volunteer/Performer Pool)
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There is no theme this time or limit on the number of actors in your show! You don’t need to submit a script to sign up, tho we may ask for more info before adding you to the roster. “Play” is also a term with a lot of room for experimentation. We’ve enjoyed a number of wordless performances, like a two-person clown show pantomime, or a 10 minute hyper-realism nap on a couch. Plays have also included shows where performers read from scripts or even handed scripts to volunteers from the audience. Feel free to play with “play”!
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Play slots are chosen through a mix of who signs up first, special selection, and offering spots to people there was not space for in previous playfests. We plan to let folks know they’re in on a rolling basis.
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The Glitterbox provides:
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The performance space for:
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1 Dress/Tech Rehearsal
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2 performances
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A stage! Basic, solid raised platform with a closable curtain
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A projector (you would provide the laptop/media)
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Volunteers to host the show, run sound & lights, stage manage, stage crew, work the door, and run concessions. If you’d like to volunteer for any of these roles too, let us know in our volunteer form!
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Advertising and an enthusiastic audience!
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Some assistance finding/sharing props, furniture, costumes (we have a costume closet!!)
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Tabling space to sell merch, zines, or invite additional donations.
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Ideally, a recording of your performances (if you have a volunteer videographer, send them our way!)
In the "Write a Message" space below, please share the following:
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Let us know if you are available for both nights and the tech rehearsal (Sept 11-13, 2025 at the Glitterbox in Pittsburgh). It’s actually okay if you can only do one show night, but we’d love to have you for both, and it’d be great if we could know that now!
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Please let us know the name of your play (feel free to change it up until we print the program handout), a few sentence blurb/teaser, and whoever/wherever you’d like us to link to if added to the line-up. Pictures would be great too in a follow-up! Anything we can use to make the difficult choices of which shows to feature - and for promo’ing your fabulous performances on the Glitterbox website and socials as we get closer to showtime.
Even if it doesn’t work out this time, we’re so glad you reached out and that the announcement about our playfest reached you! Thanks for spreading the word too! If you’re out-of-town or have a longer, more involved play in mind, know that we often have folks come through on tour & are always taking rentals via the Rental Interest form on our website. ✨
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