Frostburg One-Act Play Festival Winners Announced, Date Set

Frostburg State University's Center for Creative Writing has announced that Karen Hartline's play, "Life After Life," is the winner for the 2011 One-Act Playwriting Competition for the Frostburg One-Act Play Festival. The festival will be held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23 and 24, at the Palace Theatre on Main Street in Frostburg. The event starts at 8 p.m.

Over 40 one-act plays from around the world were submitted for this year's competition. The plays were judged on plot, character development, dialogue and overall quality.

Hartline is a playwright from Oakland, Calif. Her work has appeared in the Bradley Playhouse Playwrights Festival, the Soft Serve Playhouse 10-Minute Play Festival and the Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region in Denver. "Life After Life" focuses on that thin line between reality and delusion. Judges heraldEd Hartline's work as "amusing" and "a mystery." One noted, "Wild - not what I expected - but held my attention." Hartline will receive the top prize of $750.

New Jersey resident Walt Vail's "Hattie's Dress," a play about the changes one goes through when reaching a deepened understanding of life and death, won second place. The third place winning play is "Closing Time" by Carl Williams of Houston, Texas.

Performances of all three plays are sponsored by the Community Trust Foundation. A question and answer session with the playwrights and cast will follow each performance.

Tickets are priced at $10 for adults/$5 for students and will be available at Main Street Books and The Allegany Arts Council, as well as the Palace Theater box office on the nights of the performances.

For more information, visit online at www.frostburg.edu/cwcenter or call 301.687.4340.