2021 Stage It! Ten-Minute Play Festival Winners Announced

The Fifth Annual Stage It! Ten-Minute Play Festival will be held May 14-16, at the Performing Arts Center, Moe Auditorium & Film Center, 10150 Bonita Beach Road. All tickets $25.

There were 372 short plays entered in this year's competition-from 38 states and 8 countries. There are twenty winning plays that will be published in Volume 5 of the Stage It! Ten-Minute Plays series. The book release will coincide with the festival-copies will be available for purchase during the event or from online retailers. This year's winning playwrights hail from around the globe, from Florida to New York and across the nation to California, plus the countries of Iran and Japan. The Stage It! Festival will feature 10 of the winning plays, which will be performed throughout the weekend.

During the Stage It! Festival, eight directors utilizing local talent will present plays of varying styles including comedy, historical, drama, farce, existential and noir. Subjects involve divorce, the right to vote, death, stardom, self-discovery and drunken shenanigans. After the performances-actors, directors and attending playwrights are available for a brief talkback.

The audiences get their say in the Stage It! Festival's outcome by voting for their favorites-the playwright who's work receives the most votes will win the honor of being "Audience Favorite," which will be announced during the talkback after the final performance on May 16.

STAGE IT! INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION-20 WINNING PLAYS:

* Denotes the plays that will be performed during the Stage It! Festival weekend
Selections of the winning plays not performed during the festival are slated for presentation during the Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs 2021-22 season.

A Hostile Takeover in Battery Park* by Jim Lunsford of Valley Village, CA

A Hot Brick* by Uma Incrocci of Los Angeles, CA

Always a Bridesmaid by Stephanie Bok of Brooklyn, NY

First Handshake by John Molina of Chula Vista, CA

Forget the Lillies* by Dawn Wilson of Wilmington, NC

Form Follows Function* by Judd Lear Silverman of Brooklyn, NY

Goodnight I Love You* by Aladen Gulmohamad of NY, NY

Hyena Nightfall by Davoud Zarif of Mashhad, Khorsan, Iran

In Farce* by Steven Bucko of Lithia, FL

Jorge Hosts Chanukah by Jonathan Josephson of Pasadena, CA

On Queue* by Morey Norkin of Ogi-Shi, Saga, Japan

The Harmonica in Your Closet by Shelley Segal of Greensboro, NC

The Next Ivan Sheransky* by Jim Geoghan of Los Angeles, CA

The Third Person* by Dan Borengasser of Springdale, AR

The Tongues of Plastered Macbeth* by Daniel Tobias of NY, NY

Twelve 25 by Lynn Aylward of San Francisco, CA

Until We Meet Again by Frank Shima of Venice, FL

Very Private Detective by Carl Williams of Houston, TX

War Babies by Madeline Daly Puccioni of Oakland, CA

Yellow by Craig Moeckly of White Bear Lake, MN

(more)

STAGE IT! TEN-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL

-TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS:

The 372 entries from 38 states and 8 countries were read and adjudicated twice, by professionals in the theatre industry: Robin Bennett (Atlanta), Helen Bessette (Indiana), Gregory Blair (Los Angeles), Frank Blocker (Festival Coordinator), John Bostic (Louisiana), Rochelle Burdine (Atlanta), Jenni Caruso (Atlanta), Bronwen Coleman (Australia), Nathan Cooper (Bulgaria), Daniel Cristofori (London), Elizabeth D'Onofrio (Naples), Alex S. Freeman (New York), Scott Garland (Toronto), Talaura Harms (New York), Charles Jackson (Texas), Juliet Jewett (Massachusetts), Cheryl King (California), Sarah Lehman (Texas), Ralph Lewis (New York), Annette Pfister (New York), Anne Reed (Fort Myers), Paul Rivers (Toronto), Brianna Rodriguez Day (Naples), Heidi Schwarzenbart (Wisconsin), Marlene Strollo (Bonita Springs), and Marilee Warner (Pennsylvania).

Directors are Frank Blocker, Shaun Cott, Brianna Rodriguez Day, Gary Obeldobel, Toni Palumbo, Anne Reed, Leslie Sanderson, and Marlene Strollo who also acts as Stage Manager for the production with assistance from Rita Meehan.

Actors involved include Kevin Buja, Jay Carmona, Patti Caroli, Victor Caroli, Shaun Cott, Brianna Day, Jen Driggers, Keith Gahagan, Hollis Galman, Mickey Lacroix, Melissa Hennig, Marilyn Hilbert, Bonnie Michaels, Linda Mizeur, Ellen Rodwick, Leslie Sanderson, and Kenneth Wetcher.