STAGE IT! 10-Minute Play Festival Runs Two Weekends At Center For Performing Arts Bonita Springs

The Seventh Annual Stage It! Ten-Minute Play Festival will be held May 11-21, at the Performing Arts Center, Moe Auditorium & Film Center, 10150 Bonita Beach Road. All tickets are $35.

There were 468 short plays entered in this year's competition-from 38 states and 8 countries. There are thirty winning plays that will be published in Volume 7 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 Austria, Australia, Canada, Czechia, Germany, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The Stage It! Festival will feature 10 of the winning plays, performed throughout both weekends.

During the Stage It! Festival, five directors utilizing local talent will present plays of varying styles of comedy and drama, and all very theatrical. Subjects involve nautical lore, women supporting women, superheroes, swamp monsters, death, office politics, and as always, love. 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 whose 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 21.The 468 entries read and adjudicated twice, by professionals in the theatre industry: Helen Bessette (Indiana), Janina Birtolo (Florida), John Bostic (New Orleans), Jenni Caruso (Atlanta), Bronwen Coleman (New Zealand), Nathan Cooper (Bulgaria), Elizabeth D'Onofrio (Florida), Brianna Day (Washington DC), Andres Degas (New York), Alex S. Freeman (New York), Greg Gould (New Zealand), Talaura Harms (New York), Juliet Jewett (New Jersey), Carla Kidd (Dallas), Cheryl King (California), Catherine Lamm (United Kingdom), Sarah Lehman (Texas), Marlene Nichols (Los Angeles), Toni Palumbo Vasquez (Florida), Jeff Peters (Los Angeles), Annette Pfister (New York), Anne Reed (Florida), Paul Rivers (Toronto), Judith Gangi Santos (Florida), Heidi Schwarzenbart (Wisconsin), Jessica Walck (Florida), Marilee Warner (California), and Cara Vander Wiel (North Carolina).

Directors are Frank Blocker, Andre Degas, Judith Devine, Toni Palumbo Vasquez, and Marilee Warner.

Actors involved include Pamela Austin, Gregg Birr, Kyle Bittner, Carolyn Bronson, Louise Cornetta, Reuben Garcia, Melissa Hennig, Marilyn Hilbert, Janelle Perry, Rosa Saldana, Leslie Sanderson, Cynthia Sepich and Gay Smith.

Theatre staff will include Lighting Designer Jeff Blodget, Sound Designers Travis Seidel and Angelia Winn, and Videographer Ruben Dario Vasquez.

STAGE IT! INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION-30 WINNING PLAYS:

Alligator Toes by Shelley Stolaroff Segal of Greensboro, North Carolina

Be Batman by Willow McLaughlin of Burlington, Washington

Betta Than Meta by Carl Maronich of Oak Park, Illinois

*Bird Girl and The Hammer by Bethany Dickens Assaf of Oviedo, Florida

Cop Talk by Brian Marsh of Belchertown, Massachusetts

*Cut the Cord by Don Salvo of Celebration, Florida

Dark Windows by Madeline Puccioni of Oakland, California

Desert Savior by Marc Littman of Granada Hills, California

*Flying Fish by Jim Lunsford of Valley Village, California

For Better, For Worse by Dan Borengasser of Springdale, Arkansas

*I Used to Be the Pretty One by Lindsey Brown of Northpark, Auckland, New Zealand

Life of Mara by Meredith Parks of Royal Oak, Michigan

*Looking for Sara by Suzy Wilds of Carlton, New South Wales, Australia

Mime by Barry Wood of Navenby, Lincoln, United Kingdom

*One Word by Bara Swain of New York, New York

Pre-Code by Craig Gustafson of Lombard, Illinois

Snowman by Leda Siskind of Los Angeles, California

*Something Blue by Chris Woodworth of Geneva, New York

Sugar by Jennifer O'Grady of Pelham, New York

Superficial Intelligence by Fred Kempner of Alpharetta, Georgia

*The Accent by Kevin Broccoli of Johnston, Rhode Island

The Boss is Out by Judd Lear Silverman of Brooklyn, New York

The Door to Somewhere by Willow McLaughlin of Burlington, Washington

The Grandparents Are Alright by Samara Siskind of Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The Pause That Refreshes by Kenneth Burchard of Hanover, New Hampshire

The Shomer by David Lipschutz of Chicago, Illinois

The Tarantula's Pet Frog by Rex McGregor of Auckland, New Zealand

*Thysia & Prodosia by Jonathan D. Tobin of Naperville, Illinois

Tidal Lock by Jessica Moreland of Bellingham, Washington

*Underneath It All by Lexie Marsters of Bothell, Washington

* Denotes the plays that will be performed during the Stage It! Festival weekend