Winners Revealed for Meanwhile Park Playwright Prizes 2026 and 2027

The winners of the Meanwhile Park Playwright Prizes 2026 and 2027 have been selected.  Chosen after reviewing over 275 submissions, the winner of the 2026 prize is Matthew Ivan Bennett's play "A French Toast," which will be directed by renowned local theater practitioner Jason Bowcutt. The two were also the writer and director for the first Meanwhile Park show, "From June to August," in 2023. 

The show runs July 9 to July 19 and audiences will be treated to an evening of drinks, snacks and theatrical fun, all of which is included in the ticket price. Meanwhile Park, which is near the Herman Franks Dog Park, opens at 8:30 p.m. on performance nights, and the play begins as the light fades.

Bennett describes the show as follows: "A straitlaced middle-aged woman is devastated when her ex-husband gets remarried in the gorgeous countryside of Southern France, but after she meets the jaded yet charming manager of a B&B there’s no time to lick her wounds as her values are thrown to the wind, her relationship with her daughter is battered, and she must choose between her old life and a possible new one."

Bennett has been active in Salt Lake theatre since 2005, where he’s premiered several stage and radio plays as a playwright, including the fractured fairy tale "Troll" at Plan-B Theatre/RadioWest, "A Night With The Family" at PYGmalion, and "From June To August" at Meanwhile Park. He’s workshopped plays at Pioneer Theatre and Utah Shakespeare, and has acted with Salt Lake Acting Company, Plan-B, PYGmalion, Voodoo, and Utah Shakes. He’s a new artistic producer at Sackerson, and has helped them write immersive or unconventional theatre for found spaces. 

He’s twice been a contributor at Great Plains Theatre Commons and has been a finalist at the O’Neill for his play "Let Down Your Hair." His feature screenplay "The Whole Lot" was an Official Selection at the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival in 2022. His poetry has been published with Sugar House Review and Utah Life, and his novelette "Assimilant" will soon be published with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Bennett was a 2024 artist fellow at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in New Mexico, is a Certified Actor candidate with the National Michael Chekhov Association, and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Bennett shared the following about being selected by Meanwhile Park for the second time. 

"Since my earliest attempts at writing dialogue, I was writing comedy — and yet my career has mostly been focused on political drama and light horror," he said. "So, damn, it feels great to have a comedy get produced. It thrills my inner teenager who remembers squinting at a computer screen way past his bedtime and chuckling to himself. Most of the comedy we encounter these days, especially romantic comedy, is produced on TV. So it's quite special that Jeff Paris is making room onstage for rom-coms in Salt Lake City. My first experience at Meanwhile Park in 2023 was an ear-to-ear smile from beginning to end and so I'm really looking forward to going back."

Bowcutt said he's also thrilled to be back at Meanwhile Park after having previously directed "Vacation" in 2025 and "From June to August" in 2023. Other directing credits include "Be Here Now" and "Well" for PYGmalion, "Singing to the Brine Shrimp," "One Big Union," and "Adam and Steve and the Empty Sea" for Plan-B, and "Four Women Talking About the Man Under the Sheet" and "Fun Home" for Salt Lake Acting Company. Bowcutt spent many years working as an actor/director in NYC and at theatres across the country and was a co-founder of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards.

The 2027 play will be "Two Four Six Eight, Who Do We Resuscitate" by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend, who is based in Chicago. The director for that show will be announced soon. 

Dellagiarino Feriend describes the play as follows: "A dead body is brought back to life, ostensibly to improve American vaccination rates, but really to impress the Ivy League."

Dellagiarino Feriend is an award-winning playwright, a member of the Dramatists Guild, and President of the Board of Arts For All, a NYC-based nonprofit bringing accessible artistic opportunities to children who face barriers to exploring the arts. She has a BFA in Film & TV from NYU and two kids who are disappointed that she doesn't write plays about dinosaurs. www.arts-for-all.org

She said of being selected: "I'm so thrilled to have my play chosen for the Meanwhile Park Playwright Prize! It's always so wonderful when something I've written resonated with others, especially when it's weird and silly, because then I know I've found my people."

Meanwhile Park was created by Salt Lake City art and theater lover Jeff Paris in 2021. Paris has created a playing space in his own backyard. The space is designed so audience members can gather before the production for apre-performance celebration which includes complimentary drinks and snacks, with the idea that you socialize with your fellow theatergoers before the play begins. Coming soon will be an announcement about The Minimo Contemporary, a neighborhood art space at the same location.