Guidelines for Submission to Southern Theatre

Background:
Southern Theatre is a 32-page magazine, published quarterly by the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). SETC was founded in 1949 and is the largest regional theatre organization in the United States. The SETC region includes the 10 Southeastern states. Members of SETC are theatre professionals involved in college/university theatre, professional theatre, community theatre, secondary school theatre or theatre for youth.

Readership:
The circulation of Southern Theatre is over 4,000. The targeted readership includes theatre professionals involved in college/university theatre, professional theatre, community theatre, secondary school theatre and/or theatre for youth in the Southeastern region, across the country and overseas. The magazine is circulated to all SETC members as well as to more than 100 libraries across the country. Among the subscribers are libraries located at universities outside of the region, including Harvard University and Boston University.

Articles:
The mission of the magazine is to fill a need for a high-quality, well-written, popular theatre magazine in the Southeast. Articles must relate to theatre and preference is given to matter closely linked to theatre activity in the Southeastern United States. Articles may cover virtually any topic related to theatre.

We run many articles that have come in unsolicited or "on speculation." All articles undergo careful scrutiny before they are accepted for publication. Articles must be on topics of interest and importance to theatre professionals in the region. They must be well-researched and clearly written.

We especially are seeking stories on people and organizations that are paving new paths or are making a difference in theatre in the region. We also seek stories on trends and new concepts in theatre in the Southeast.

Regular columns in Southern Theatre include:
• "Outside the Box," a column featuring innovative solutions to problems faced by technical directors and designers;
• "Words, words, words…," a book review column focusing on books holding special interest for those involved in theatre in the Southeast.

Review Process:
Articles are reviewed first by the editor, then sent for further review to three members of the editorial board. Editorial board members are theatre professionals involved in professional theatre, community theatre, secondary school theatre, theatre for youth or college/university theatre. Editorial board members read the stories that are sent to them, then recommend for or against publication. They also suggest changes or revisions in articles. If the editorial board recommends major changes in an article, then those same members read the article a second time after changes are made and recommend again whether or not to publish it. The editor makes the final decision on whether to publish a story.

Photos:
Photos should accompany all submissions. All photos must be of good quality. We prefer color or black and white prints. However, we will accept transparencies or color slides (if transparencies are not available). Photos are used with stories inside the magazine and on the cover.

We have a special need for dramatic, high-quality photos for the cover of the magazine. These photos should have most of their action concentrated in the lower two-thirds of the photo (because of the location of the magazine’s masthead). Photos for the cover must be color prints or transparencies (no slides).

Details on Submission:
Length of stories should be 1,000-3,000 words. Articles should be submitted via e-mail as a text file, Word file, Word Perfect file or other word processing program file (check with the editor before sending if it’s an unusual program) or on floppy disk. Please note the program in which the story was written. Also include a brief bio of yourself to accompany the story. Hard copy should be sent via mail. Photos should accompany all stories. Please include SASE for return of photos, disks and other materials.

Payment:
We pay $50 for full-length features. We do not pay for story sidebars, Outside the Box features or book reviews.

Please submit stories to:

Deanna Thompson
Editor, SETC News/Southern Theatre
3309 Northampton Drive
Greensboro, NC 27408-5224
Phone: 336-292-6041
Fax: 336-294-3292
E-mail: deanna@setc.org