Winners Announced for Twelfth Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival

The play hopefully titled THE BEST TEN MINUTES EVER turned out to be the judges' pick for best script at Theatre Odyssey's Twelfth Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival, held this past weekend May 4-6 at the Asolo Theatre.

Written by Dylan Jones, the production featured Philip Troyer and Johana Davila as actors whose lives are thoroughly entangled in their art, with Sandra Musicante as the director whose vision exceeds her insight. Sara Logan was the real life director.

Is it metatheatre if the characters in the play don't realize they're in a play?

Jones's play RESERVATIONS was presented at the 2013 Festival, and his play THE COWARD was the Runner-Up winner in the 2015 Festival.

As the chief troublemaker at Little Grey Hat Productions, Jones does his best to stir up imaginative theatrical activity throughout the area - occasionally you'll even find him onstage.

The Runner-Up winner at this year's Festival was ALWAYS by Stephen Cooper. Directed by Louise Stinespring, the production featured Andrea Dovner and Tom Aposporos as a married couple facing an uncertain future with courage and humor.

Cooper's plays "HONEST ABE" MAZULA and I DO, I DO, I DON'T were both staged in the 2010 Festival, and CONFESSIONS OF A DEUX was the Best Play in the 2012 Festival.

Adjudicators for this year's competition were: Carolyn Michel, resident actor at Asolo Rep for 24 seasons; Ben Turoff, Director of The Glenridge Performing Arts Center; and Brendan Ragan, Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Urbanite Theatre.

Patrons also had an opportunity to vote for a favorite play, and this year's Audience Favorite Award went to Ron Pantello's I'M DEAD WHEN I SAY I'M DEAD with Kathryn Chesley and MitcheAl Pearl, directed by Louise Stinespring.

Photo by Tami Vaughan