Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press Name April Go Try PlayWrite Winner

The April Go Try PlayWrite winner is Jane M. Lee for her piece Midnight at the Pancake Shack. Jane M. Lee is a New York City-based playwright whose work has been performed across the United States as well as in Canada, Hong Kong, and London. Her short play Trite and True was produced Off-Broadway in the Downtown Urban Arts Festival at Theatre Row.

Her short play Family Emergency was praised for “fus[ing] the hostility of a Jerry Springer program with the warmth and irony of an O. Henry story.” She was a semifinalist for Chisa Hutchinson's Signpost Fellowship for writers of color. Her play Closet Space won the College of Charleston's Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award and was developed at the Music Theatre of Connecticut and the Green Mountain Playwright Retreat. Her play At the Door received a developmental workshop at The Workshop Theater of New York City.

April 2026 prompt was: An “Are you ready to order, yet?” prompt. Write a ten-page maximum scene or an eight-page maximum monologue about a restaurant where the food is great, but the service sucks. It could be a sit-down restaurant, a plate lunch counter, a food truck, wherever you go buy food that you no can resist. (This prompt was inspired by the cast of Blu's Hanging.)

The company is now accepting entries for the May contest HERE

Each month Kumu Kahua Theatre co-sponsors this playwriting contest with Bamboo Ridge Press in their combined effort to nurture local playwrights and authors. Each month a different judge is pulled from amongst the theatre practitioners in the Hawaii theatre community. All plays submitted are read by Kumu Kahua Theatre Artistic Director, Harry Wong III. 

Contest Rules: Each entrant must write a 5-page monologue and/or a 10-page scene based on monthly requirements. Each month a new prompt will be chosen by Kumu Kahua Theatre's Artistic Director. The prompt will be given on or by the 1st of the month and the due date will always be the last day of the month. All entries must be written in traditional play format; instructions on this format can be found here: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/script-formats courtesy of the Dramatists Guild. 

There will be one winner each month. Scripts will be submitted to the judges anonymously. So please do not put your name on the cover of your script. Winners will receive $100.00 and a subscription to Bamboo Ridge Press. 

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