VSA arts, New Brunswick, is seeking submissions for the 2010 Playwright Discovery Program, which invites middle and high school students to write a one-act play about disability. Deadline for submissions is April 15.

The program encourages students to take a closer look at the world around them, examine how disability affects their lives and the lives of others, and express their views through the art of playwriting. The selected play will be professionally produced at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., and the selected playwright will receive $2,000 and a trip to Washington, D.C., to see his or her play performed.

For the program, playwrights may draw from their own experiences or they may choose to write about an experience of someone they know or a fictional character. Young playwrights of all abilities are encouraged to participate. Students may submit their individualwork or they may collaborate with a group or class of students.

Entries must be one-act plays of 40 pages or less. They should be original, unproduced, and unpublished at the time of submission. VSA arts will accept plays that have had previous readings or workshops as long as they were not produced for a paying audience and have not been publicly reviewed.

For guidelines and applications, visit www.vsarts.org/playwrightdiscovery. VSA arts is an international nonprofit that provides educators, parents, and artists with the resources and tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. For more information about VSA arts, visit www.vsarts.org.