Winner Of The Dr. R.J. Rodriguez Emerging Playwrights Contest Announced

Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company (www.playhousecreatures.org)is proud to announce the winners of its first annual "Dr. R.J. Rodriguez Emerging Playwrights Contest."

1st Place: "The Followers," by William Johnson ($500 prize and week-long workshop, with a public, staged reading);

2nd Place: "The Shadow Child," by Myra Slotnick ($100 prize);

3rd Place: "Composition of A Woman," by Maren LaVelle ($50 prize);

Special Honorable Mention, "The Tools of Ignorance," by Steve Karp.

Festival coordinator, Megan O'Leary stated: "We were impressed and overwhelmed by the quality of the submissions (over 200). It was an extremely difficult decision- but, we think of all of the submissions as winners. PCTC's true goal is to encourage, assist, and share the original voices of these exciting playwrights."

Details for the New York City staged reading of "The Followers," shall follow soon.

More about the Winning Play:
The Followers is a three-act play that uses the backdrop of a high school sex
scandal to examine adolescent loneliness and the forces that isolate teenagers from
the rest of society. The play follows the paths of SARAH, a verbally precocious high
school student, and MR. HARRIS, a struggling first-year English teacher, as they try
to find meaning and connection in an alienating high school environment. To
embody the pressures facing both students and teacher, The Followers uses a unique
and innovative theatrical device called THE CROWD, six performers with shifting
identities who function alternately as the play's chorus and antagonists. As The
Crowd pressures both Sarah and Mr. Harris to conform to their prescribed roles in
school society, the play builds towards its explosive conclusion. The Followers
alternates between teen and adult perspectives, examining both the brutal dynamics
of adolescent social life and the absurdity of school as a social environment.