SPF NYC 2026 SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL Week Two Winner Revealed

The second weekend of Be Bold! Productions 15th annual Players Theatre NYC Short Play Festival ran last weekend at The Players Theatre in the West Village, debuting five original short plays by five different playwrights based around the theme of New York City. Each weekend for three weeks in June, a new selection of 15-minute original plays premieres to examine what it means to live in NYC. Last weekend's audience-selected winner was 'Two Cops on the Platform', written and directed by Taylor Gonzlez.

In 'Two Cops on the Platform', two New York City police officers on a quiet subway platform discuss a philosophical thought experiment known as the Trolley Problem. Officer A (Amanda Gomez-Rivera) introduces the topic and tries to get Officer B (Maddoux LaRocque), who is obsessing over his ex-girlfriend's apparent plastic surgery, to decide which path he would take in the philosophical scenario. Their mundane conversation takes a dark turn when an active shooter situation erupts nearby, forcing them to face a real-life moral dilemma: pursue fare-evading teens or confront the shooter. 'Two Cops on the Platform' appeared among four other NYC-themed one-acts.

'The Committee', written by Matthew Moore and directed by Burak Tatar, is set in the near future where a committee gets to decide whether or not Dawn (Defne Ozkan), a New Yorker for the last five years, stay in New York City. Committee members Laura (Isabel Keener), Becca (Ashley Lavalle), and Tara (Oyku Guven) tell Dawn they are unimpressed with how she's handling life in the Big Apple, and that since housing in the city has run out, she should leave. Dawn, however, has other plans.

'The Three Little Pigs', written and directed by Edward Gibbons-Brown, featured a reinterpretation of the classic children's fable as an anticapitalist exploration of the housing and affordability crisis in modern-day NYC. Set in a sleek DUMBO loft, three siblings-Brick (Lucy Buchanan) the risk-averse success, Stick (Em Rose Stern) the overburdened renter, and Straw (Nicole Ponce) the drifting idealist-wrestle over a lease co-sign as the 'wolf' of debt, class, and luck huffs at the door, forcing them to ask what family really owes each other.

'New York Crazy,' written by Andrea Woodbridge and directed by Brenda Bell, featured Physicians Assistants Vickie (Brenda Bell) and Sylvia (Andrea Woodbridge), who meet up in the break room to discuss Sylvia's recently-ended day shift. The seemingly innocent conversation takes a dangerous twist when the truth about how Vickie feels about Sylvia's inconsiderate behavior comes out, as well as her diabolical plans for Sylvia.

'Washed Up', written by Riley Fee and directed by Julian Guzman Abril takes place in 1960s New York City, where veteran acting coach Gouda Loggins (Kathryn Loggins) struggles to help her current student, Chad Bradford (Riley Fee), a surfing enthusiast transplant from Southern California, to dig deeper into his acting work. Gouda starts to question her own abilities and relevancy as a staple in the New York theatre scene, prompting Chad to step in and help boost her confidence (and, as a result, his own).