16 short-form playwrights to face off in Seoul Players' 10-Minute Play Festival

Seoul's international theater scene gears up for another round of competition as the 10-Minute Play Festival (10MPF) kicks off with its 13th edition. Organized by Seoul Players, a volunteer-run English-language theater group founded in 2001, this contest finds its home at Dulwich College in southern Seoul. For this year's event, the group received an impressive 410 submissions from playwrights across the globe, sent between March and April.

The surge in submissions has become a recurring trend, with the number peaking at over 500 last year within just two weeks, leading to early closure of submissions.

Last year, a board member raised concerns about a significant portion of the received plays possibly being AI-generated. Lorne Oliver, a producer for Seoul Players, acknowledged this perception but maintained that it did not impact their final decisions. They did not conduct AI checks on the submissions; instead, they relied on the assessment results, confident that the stronger, more authentic plays would rise to the top.