2024
Congratulations to this year’s winner, Steven Bogart, for his provocative and timely play, Made in Heaven. Shout out to the jurors for taking time during their summer vacations to read the plays. Thank you to everyone for participating and hope to see you again next year for the 7th annual Risk Theatre Playwriting Competition.
GRAND-PRIZE WINNER
Made in Heaven by Steven Bogart
When Adam Huntsman, an illustrious and tenured art history professor, unexpectedly includes Jess Koons’s sexually explicit photographs, Made in Heaven, in his Senior Art Seminar, shock and disgust for Huntsman ripple through the community of an elite art college, forcing Nancy Pandora, the first appointed female dean to face afflicted academia’s entanglements surrounding academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the politics of art in the post “me-too” cancel-culture. Focused on trigger warnings and what constitutes sexual harassment, the professor refuses to back down and find a compromise to his position and prerogative to teach controversial content. At the same time, the proper response to his arrogance becomes a central dilemma.
Steven Bogart is a playwright, screenwriter, and freelance stage director. In 2015, he received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Award in playwriting for The Last Skywriter in the Universe. He was a 2009 Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant recipient in playwriting for his play Pigcat, receiving the Holland New Voice Award at the 2009 Great Plains Theater Conference. In 2015, Wheelock Family Theatre commissioned him to write and direct a new adaptation of Pinocchio through the lens of Japanese mythology. His play Alice in War was chosen for an equity showcase production at Arielle Topper’s Summer Play Festival NYC in 2007. He is also an award-winning screenwriter, placing in multiple competitions. His screenplay Blood’s Child was optioned by True Friends Production in LA. He co-wrote and directed his first feature film, Orange Crush, which is currently being edited. He has directed for the American Repertory Theater (Cabaret), among others.
FINALISTS
The Mesquite Tree: An American Tragedy by David Davila
Manuela gave birth to Fatima at a scared sixteen. Fatima gave birth to Blanca at a love-struck fourteen. Blanca gave birth to Carmel at a desperate sixteen. Carmel gave birth to Destiny at a rebellious fifteen. Now Destiny is an aloof fifteen, and Blanca wants more for her granddaughter than the monotonous life of a young mother stuck in the same small house in South Texas as five generations of her abuelas. Can she change her family’s destiny before there’s another mouth to feed, or is the cycle of poverty too crushing for one woman to combat? Filled with laughter through tears, The Mesquite Tree: an American Tragedy is an intimate examination of the small joys and painful traumas of a far too common family of strong Latina women who, like mesquite trees, find ways to plant their tough roots deep into the desert dirt and flourish in the harshest of conditions.
David Davila is a writer and performer from South Texas, where the wall’s been standing since the Bush administration. Winner of the National New Play Network Smith Prize for Political Theatre and the New American Voices National Playwriting Award, his work stands at the intersection of queer-culture and mestizaje ranging from plays and musicals, to poetry and stand-up comedy. He’s a Playwrights Horizons Artist Grant Recipient, a Roundabout Theatre Company SpaceJam Resident, a Primary Stages Rockwell Scholar, and a Disney TV Fellowship Semi-Finalist. An alumnus of Indiana University, The University of Texas San Antonio, the Second City Training Center in Chicago, and the Primary Stages ESPA Playwriting School in Manhattan, he is Assistant Professor of Playwriting at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Follow him at @davidodavila – daviddavila.net
Monsters by Michael Mobley
In Monsters, three black haunted house performers become the monsters they portray, which asks the question: are monsters made or are they born? When their supervisor unexpectedly resigns and needs a replacement, one of the performers sees the promotion as a way to get out of his terrible living situation, but for the other two performers the promotion becomes more deadly than the haunted house itself.
Michael writes about the intimate and private lives of Black Americans throughout America’s past, present, and future, sometimes using different genres to tell these stories. Two of his one-acts were Regional Finalists for the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play. His full-length play, Monsters had a reading/workshop at Quick Silver Theater Company and Prologue Theatre’s Foreword New Works Series. It was a Finalist for the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and The Playwrights Realm’s Scratchpad Series. He was also a Finalist for the Greenhouse Residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Many Voices Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center. His work has been supported by the Atlantic Center for the Arts and Echo Theater Company (National Young Playwrights in Residence Program 21-22).
Seduced by Rebecca Osborne
When seventeen-year-old Roz Visser’s homeland is invaded in May of 1940, her father is taken from their Dutch village and held in a German work camp. Roz, rebellious by nature, and her mother feel powerless against the enemy forces who control their country and occupy their village. Roz laments the cowardness of the press in reporting on the war. If adults lack the courage to act, what can a teenager do? Mrs. Visser’s job at the police station puts her in daily contact with the German Commandant, where she knows complying with his orders helps ensure Roz’s safety. But when Roz witnesses the atrocities of war firsthand, she refuses to stand by any longer. Defying her mother, Roz secretly joins her friends Ella, Tess, and Zoe as a member of the Dutch Resistance. As the weeks pass, these four young women dare to be remarkable. Using youth to their advantage, they seek ways to help those in danger and opportunities to foil German plans. When the Germans begin recruiting Dutch citizens as collaborators, suspicion of locals grows. Objectives start to collide, and a blurry moral line threatens their efforts. Seduced is a story in which courage becomes contagious, risky choices regretful, and the truth of a generational lie is laid bare.
Social and political topics are often the impetus for Rebecca Osborne’s stage plays. She’s drawn to docudrama, fabulism, futurism, and stories from mythology. She is a prior O’Neill Semi-Finalist, Texas Educational Theatre Association Playfest Award winner, and an invited participant to the Kennedy Center Intensive. Her dramatic work has been produced Off-Off-Broadway. Rebecca holds both a BFA and MA in Theatre and has specialized studies in playwriting. She served on the Board of the International Centre of Women Playwrights (ICWP), where she was instrumental in the 50/50 project launch. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll, and Scriptworks in Austin, Texas. where she lives.
I, Will, will! by Philip Spensley
We do not know why young Will Shakespeare suddenly left his home town of Stratford, abandoning his deeply indebted father and mother and his wife and child. Nor do we know what drew him to the theatre and how he got involved in it, what roles he may have played as a reputedly primary actor of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and later the King’s Men, on a par with leading actor Richard Burbage, as one contemporary document reports. Based on research and conjecture, as well as drawing from Shakespeare’s own works, I, Will, Will! brings to life the young Will Shakespeare as he ignores the potential risk of his actions of once again poaching deer on the estate of “the law is me” Sir Thomas Lucy, High Constable of Warwickshire whom, to his considerable detriment, he has run afoul of before. In killing Lucy’s favorite mastiff that has attacked his father he sets in motion the action of the play. Relentless pursued by Lucy, quick thinking Will must use his wits, opportunistically improvising escape after escape, while digging himself ever deeper and at the same time discovering new talents and who and what he is. Finally cornered, Will must face reality that to save his life he must embrace the tragedy of having to abandon the family he loves and his life in Stratford. Improvising one more ruse he escapes into a future he does not wish, only to find fame and wealth, as the man we think we know.
A dual Canadian and US citizen, Philip Spensley has acted extensively in theatre, film and television in the US and Canada, as well as directing for professional, educational and community theatre. He has taught for the Universities of Guelph, Loyola and Concordia in Montreal, Wayne State, St. Olaf College, the Banff School of Fine Arts, and the National Theatre School of Canada. Besides I, Will, Will!, plays include Johnny Fibber (a musical), and East of the Sun and West of the Moon both for young audiences; Bustout, commissioned by Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival (from whom he received their Tyrone Guthrie Award); An Evening of Joe Hill, (commissioned) featuring Peggy Seeger; Hell’s Bells, a one-act published in two Canadian theatre anthologies; and adaptations of Euripides’ Iphegenia at Aulis, Sophocles’ Philoctetes, and Euripides’ The Trojan Women.
Incendiary: A Wildfire Play by Nathan Wagner
Family can be difficult. Family can be painful. When the people who are supposed to love and support you are incapable of either, everyday life can feel like a powder keg just waiting for a spark. Add the pressures of a mounting political campaign and a looming environmental threat, and who knows how hot it will burn. Incendiary confronts contemporary social issues and existential threats through the lives and struggles of an average dysfunctional family. Will they manage to overcome the walls they have put between each other, or will they be trapped behind them while the flames consume them?
Nathan Wagner is a graduate of Youngstown State University with a BFA in Musical Theatre and an emerging playwright in Pittsburgh PA. He has over a decade of experience as a theatre artist and a lifetime of experience as a theatre lover. Though his degree is performance-based as an actor, he also has significant experience as a director, dramaturg, designer, and playwright. As an artist he seeks to promote empathy and encourage audiences to seek out unique voices and perspectives. As an educator he has a profound interest in cultivating the passions of fellow artists and igniting the interests of burgeoning students of theatre. He is a collaborator by practice and by philosophy, and he strives to create a theatrical and educational space where all can be welcomed and comfortable.
SEMIFINALISTS
Private Fire by Kirt Shineman
The Art of Arson by Hutchins Foster
Generations: A War Story by Beth A. Huber
Captive by Shelli Pentimall Bookler
Rabies by Gabriel Komisar
Water Pipes: A Love Story by Amy Hanson
Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival by Jim Beard
The Bowery by Brennan Reid
Philia by India Kotis
A Climate of Errors by Kevin Delin
O Negative by Sarah Kohl
Marilyn/MISFITS/Miller by Rich Rubin
1968 by Curt Strickland
Watertown Blink by Deborah Davidson
For the Love of God by Jacob Zack
Ed and Tom Go to the Races by Edgar Chisholm
Legions of Venus or Tis Pity His Majesty’s a Whore by Tyler Joseph Rossi
A huge shout out to this year’s jurors. They are:
Franky D. Gonzalez is a Latino playwright based in Dallas. Appearances include The Lark, Sundance Institute, Ojai Playwrights Conference, NNPN, Latinx Playwrights Circle, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Goodman Theatre, New Harmony Project, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater, Ars Nova, Dallas Theater Center, William Inge Theatre Festival, Teatro Vivo, Stages Repertory Theatre, Latino Theatre Company, Latinx Theatre Commons, Seven Devils, Visión Latino (Non-Equity Jeff Award Winner for Production Short Run), Tofte Lake Center, Clamour Theatre Company, among many others. Previously a 4 Seasons Resident Playwright, Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and currently the Bishop Arts Theatre Center Playwright-in-Residence, Franky has also been the recipient of the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission, an MTC/Sloan Commission, co-recipient of the MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, won the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, the Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting, and the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition Grand Prize.
Caroline Russell-King has written 32 plays and had 62 productions across Canada and the USA. She is published in five anthologies and her trilogy of plays Palliser Suite was published by Frontenac House Press. She has received nominations for a Betty Mitchell Theatre Award, and Calgary Critics Award. She was also shortlisted for a national Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. Her play Selma Burke (with Maria Crooks) was a finalist in the 2022 Sharon Pollock Playwrights Competition. This year her play High and Splendid Braveries won the Writers Guild of Alberta Award for Drama. Currently she is an ambassador for the Dramatist Guild of America.
Miranda Zent is a performing artist, musician, writer, and educator. She has worked as a performing artist for over fifteen years in venues that include New Dramatists (NYC), SXSW, and the New West Evolving Art and Music Organization (NWEAMO). She has also performed original work in less traditional settings including the Fay Lecture Series in Analytical Psychology at Texas A&M University (fifteen years) and music for individual palliative care. She directs an international virtual performance festival (Mythfest) that has featured professional artists, educators, and students from the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. She was Assistant/Acting Director of an interdisciplinary arts and humanities program at Columbia College Chicago for seven years. She currently teaches at the University of Montana Western and works with non-profit organizations to develop arts-based substance abuse prevention strategies for youth in Montana.
There were 121 entries this year. In the last few years, the number of entries has been trending down from the 200 or so entries the first year. The number of plays that have been specifically written to target the competition, however, has been steadily trending higher, a welcome development as the competition, now going into its seventh year, matures. If you’re looking for tips and strategies on how to win the competition, check out my writings on risk and theatre on my Academia page: https://brown.academia.edu/EdwinWong As you continue writing, I hope you will consider the competition again in the future.
2023
Thank you to everyone for participating and a big shout out to this year’s jurors! Congratulations to all semifinalists, finalists, and this year’s grand prize winner. Well done, hats off! I hope you will consider telling your friends about this playwriting opportunity and consider entering again down the road.
If you’re interested in what we’re doing at risk theatre, check out all my free content on Academia: https://brown.academia.edu/EdwinWong
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Mason Wright’s Last Night in Town by Josh Drimmer
Fresh from five years . . . away . . . over a little bit of ATM robbery, Mason Wright has reasonable goals (or so he believes): make a mint playing poker and get his estranged wife Maya back. But is he as good a card player as he thinks? Was Maya trying to tell him something by never visiting or writing? Will his charm run out before his old friends remember the way things usually go with Mason? There will be damage from Mason’s many avoidable mistakes; his daughter, Lex, already has her scars. But whether Mason’s going down this time all depends on when he gets out of town.
Josh Drimmer writes comedies with unexpected drama and dramas with sharp, piercing laughter. His plays include St. Ukraine (Gorilla Rep, in progress), Story and Her (Downtown Urban Arts Festival), the lighthouse invites the storm (Sanguine Theater Company, winner of Project Playwright), Halcyon Days (T. Schreiber Studio’s New Works Initiative), The Beeping (ARTC Winterfest), Love Is Good (Producer’s Club, Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors’ Lab, and Feed the Herd), and Falling (readings at the Dramatists Guild and Theater for the New City). He is the book writer of a new musical (The Last Days of Pompeii) and a cabaret (Rejected Showgirl), a member of American Renaissance Theater Company and The Pool, and a Brooklynite until the city finally spits him out. joshdrimmer.com
FINALISTS
The Magician’s Sister by Jami Brandli
The Magician’s Sister follows the complicated narrative of two sisters, one of whom is an aspiring Magician and the other, the Play’s narrator, who somewhat reluctantly serves as her “Wise Assistant.” While the sisters’ story dramatically unfolds, the play incorporates the stories of real, historical female magicians and on-stage magic.
Jami Brandli’s plays include The Magician’s Sister, M-Theory, Technicolor Life, The Romeo and Juliet Senior Citizens Project—A Comedy, O: A Rhapsody in Divorce, and BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!)—named on The Kilroys List and a LA Times Critics’ Choice. Her work has been produced/developed at New Dramatists, New York Theatre Workshop, Kitchen Dog Theater, Women’s Voices Theater Festival, Center Theatre Group, among other venues. The Magician’s Sister recently won the 2023 Jane Chambers Award and the 2023 Stanley Drama Award. Additional selected accolades/awards: 2022 Center Theatre Group Writer’s Workshop, John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award, Humanitas Prize PLAY LA, PEN Drama Finalist. A proud member of The Playwrights Union and The Dramatist Guild, Jami teaches dramatic writing at Lesley University’s low-residency MFA program and is represented by the Michael Moore Agency and Navigation Media. For more info, visit www.jamibrandli.com and her NPX profile.
Flor Underwater by Lori Felipe-Barkin
In Florida, the water is rising, the climate is changing, and Flor and her children are looking to get theirs before it all goes to shit. Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, and intended to be performed in slow rising water, Flor Underwater is a not-too-distant-future re-imagining of America’s loopiest state in crisis as its rednecks, Cubans, Miccosukee Indians, and Mar O Lagans struggle to claim a piece of the state they call home…or what’s left of it. Flor Underwater is a nightmare but it is above anything else a love song to Florida herself.
Lori Felipe-Barkin is a playwright, performer and voice over artist based out of NYC and Miami. Using humor, fantastical elements, and different languages, Felipe-Barkin excavates anxieties surrounding themes such as climate change, love, and class. Her play, Flor Underwater, was selected for the 2020 Play Penn New Play Conference and received an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Terrence McNally Award. Her most recent full-length Ama. Egg. Oyá. received a reading as part of the Brooklyn College New Play Lab.
On the Roof by Donna Hoke
It’s 1955–post WWII, amid McCarthyism, years before Stonewall. In this dangerous and difficult era, Mitzi operates a cabaret and gay bar where Cruz, a playboy bartender; Levi, an aspiring Broadway composer; Bob, a WWII vet; and Mac, a guy who just wants camaraderie with his Coke, find solidarity in relative safety. When Andy, an idealistic newcomer with a law degree, discovers their sanctuary, it opens his eyes not just to other men like him, but to the oppression they’re hiding from. Andy challenges them about their complacency, but the men are unable to do more than fantasize about a different future. Andy’s sense of justice propels him out the door to a Mattachine meeting. En route, he’s set up by a cop who beats and arrests him. When Andy sacrifices himself to shield his friends, they and Mitzi are driven to take the brave first steps towards revolution
Donna’s work has been seen in 48 states and on five continents. Plays include Brilliant Works of Art (Kilroys List), Elevator Girl (O’Neill, Princess Grace, and Austin Film Festival finalist), Safe (winner of the Todd McNerney, Naatak, and Great Gay Play and Musical Contests), and Teach (Gulfshore New Works, O’Neill semifinalist). She has been nominated for the Primus, Blackburn, and Laura Pels prizes, and is a three-time winner of the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play (Seeds, Sons & Lovers, Once in My Lifetime). In its final three years, Artvoice named her Buffalo’s Best Writer—the only woman to ever receive the designation. Donna also has been serving the Dramatists Guild in various capacities since 2012, is an ensemble playwright at Road Less Traveled Productions, blogger, New York Times-published crossword puzzle constructor; children’s and trivia book author; and founder of BUA Takes 10: GLBT Short Stories.
Snowbirds by Lauren Holmes
Recent retirees Tom and Joan have hit the road in their new RV, ready to experience the next phase of their lives. When cash gets tight, they pick up work in a warehouse. What happens when our working lives never end?
Lauren Holmes grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts, and now lives in NYC. She writes dark, comic plays about class, work, families of happenstance, and seekers of hidden knowledge. She’s been a finalist for the Bushwick Starr Reading Series and the Risk Theatre Prize, as well as a semi-finalist for the Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship, The Next Forever Residency, and the WP Lab. Before playwriting, she worked on political campaigns, in corporate America, and for the UN in Italy and New York. Lauren graduated from Harvard College, the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli in Rome, Italy (MA in economics), and Hunter College (MFA in playwriting).
A Sure Thing by Matthew Doherty
A steel-worker, facing furloughs yet again, feels they have no choice but to pony-up the scratch for a slot-machine jackpot scam–since his friend from prison swears it’s “a sure thing.” Even if the “opportunity” risks his freedom and marriage, he knows if he can utilize the principles his wife lives by in abundance seminars, he’ll be able to be seen as the hero again … as long as he somehow manages to keep his mother-in-law from submarining the whole play by trying to get one more good f**k before she dies. A SURE THING puts center stage the invisible class that has been conned into eating itself and asks how a working man maintains his worth in a world that doesn’t need him anymore.
Matthew Doherty is a child actor turned theater artist committed to creating works steeped in the comedy of oppression. Finger style folk guitarist and song writer who’s been stalked by a mountain lion and plays a little hockey. Graduate of Northwestern who bottomed out from drugs and alcohol, then painted houses and parked card while he put his life back together. Matthew is a Woodward / Newman finalist (House Across The Street). Winner of several Scenies from Stage and Screen. His play Brothers Play, which debuted in Los Angeles to critical and financial success, has been invited to be showcased at the National Conference for Survivors of Those Abused by Priests. He has placed, or been in late round consideration at several internationally recognized contests as a screenwriter, playwright, and TV creator. Most notably, Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, Creative Screenwriting, Golden Voice, Shore Scripts, Cinequest, Humanitas, Final Draft Big Break, and the prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship. Most recently, his Reign of Terror was actively developed in the Madlabs Moving Arts 2023 cohort. A proud puppy papa of a husky named Chekhov who resides in Los Angeles with his live-in dramaturg special lady friend.
SEMIFINALISTS
Dancing Mad by Matthew Gustavsen
Point of Honour by John Krisak
A Canadian for a Canadian by Marc Ludwig
The Greater Good by Diane Sampson
Against the Order by Gursimrat Kaur
The Garment by Audrey Cefaly
Bend by Mary Donnet Johnson
La Casa Azul by Estefania Unzueta
Stand Your Ground by Patrick Vermillion
Ain’t No Fairytales in Section 8 by Cris Blak
Yoli, Alfredo, y la vida by Peter Pasco
Catalysis by Mel Konner
Thank you to the jurors for all their hours of reading and consideration. They are the unsung heroes who make the competition possible. A round of applause for the three jurors. They are:
Dr. Catalina Florescu was born in Romania and has spent the last 25 years in the States. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with a focus on Medical Humanities conferred by Purdue University. Dr. Florescu teaches honors, community learning, undergraduate courses at Pace University, and graduate seminars at Stevens Institute of Technology. She is a working mother of a beautiful young adult son. She has published academic and creative books, including a memoir, a trilogy on breast cancer, a volume about Englishes and immigration, and others. http://www.catalinaflorescu.com/
Caroline Russell-King has written 32 plays and had 62 productions across Canada and the USA. She is published in five anthologies and her trilogy of plays Palliser Suite was published by Frontenac House Press. She has received nominations for a Betty Mitchell Theatre Award, and Calgary Critics Award. She was also shortlisted for a national Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. Her play Selma Burke (with Maria Crooks) was a finalist in the 2022 Sharon Pollock Playwrights Competition. This year her play High and Splendid Braveries won the Writers Guild of Alberta Award for Drama. Currently she is an ambassador for the Dramatist Guild of America. www.carolinerussellking.com
Madison Wetzell is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Brooklyn College. Her work has been developed with or presented by Shotgun Players, Z-Space, 3Girls Theatre, Town Hall Theatre, Exquisite Corpse Company, Buffalo United Artists, Playground SF, Soundwave, Risk Theatre, The Bechdel Group, Faultline, PianoFight, and The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep. She has been a finalist for the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival and a Semi-Finalist for the O’Neill Theatre Center National Playwrights Conference.
2022
Thank you to everyone for participating and a big shout out to this year’s jurors! Congratulations to all semifinalists, finalists, and this year’s grand prize winner. Well done, hats off! I hope you will consider telling your friends about this playwriting opportunity and consider entering again down the road.
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
That Must be the Entrance to Heaven by Franky D. Gonzalez
That Must Be the Entrance to Heaven explores the lives and struggles of four Latino boxers fighting to fulfill their dreams in the United States. Wagering their lives for their dreams, these boxers fight with everything their bodies and spirits will allow against destiny, society, and the all-consuming power of a black hole in an effort to win the world title and overcome the roles life had assigned them.
Franky D. Gonzalez is a Latino playwright based in Dallas. Appearances include The Lark, the Sundance Institute, Ojai Playwrights Conference, NNPN, Latinx Playwrights Circle, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Goodman Theatre, Launch Pad at UC Santa Barbara, The New Harmony Project, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, Ars Nova, Dallas Theater Center, William Inge Theatre Festival, Teatro Vivo, Stages Repertory Theatre, Latino Theatre Company, Latinx Theatre Commons, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, the HBMG Foundation, Tofte Lake Center, Ignition Arts, Clamour Theatre Company, Road Theatre Company, and Ammunition Theater Company. A 4 Seasons Resident Playwright, Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and the Bishop Arts Theatre Center Playwright-in-Residence, Franky has also been the recipient of the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission, an MTC/Sloan Commission, co-recipient of the MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, won the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, and the Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting.
FINALISTS
The Ploughman by Eric Schabla
Roland returns to his family’s struggling soybean farm shortly after an accident with their combine harvester has left his mother disabled and his younger brother in the role of caretaker. As they navigate the aftermath of the accident, their neighbor and surrogate father figure uses his connection to a powerful Amish community in a bid to save the disintegrating family. Mildred, the troubled daughter of a local Amish patriarch, is dispatched as a go-between. Waiting on her father’s approval, Mildred and Roland must hold together the unlikely alliance, racing against the changing seasons to save the crop yield. The Ploughman is a play about the rural midwestern condition, the tension between the old world and the new, and our fading regard for craftspeople.
Eric is a writer and actor based in Los Angeles. As a playwright/actor he’s worked with the Guthrie Theatre, American Players Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Forward Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, among others. His debut short film, One Foot In, was made in partnership with Canon CinemaPro and has received awards at numerous festivals. He has also adapted foreign content for Netflix and Disney+. His poetry has been published in Ivory Tower, Pidgeonholes, Burnt Pine Magazine, and three editions of Z Publishing’s America’s Emerging Poets series. He previously served on the adjunct faculty at AMDA Hollywood and is currently an MFA Screenwriting Fellow at the American Film Institute.
UX by Jason Gray Platt
Rebecca, a recently disgraced journalist fired for racist comments, has partnered with tech entrepreneur James on an ambitious new project: a virtual reality system that can be used in sensitivity and inclusion training. James enlists Gabriel, the only Black high-level programmer at his firm, to lead the project. Initially Gabriel is hesitant, but he finds himself drawn by the potential to harness the forces of technology for the noble goal of anti-bias work. Once the project begins, however, the idea quickly gets out of hand, and it becomes clear that even the very best of intentions can be used to amplify the very worst instincts.
Jason Gray Platt’s work has been produced and developed around the United States by Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Center Theatre Company, Round House Theater, TheatreWorks, The Playwrights’ Center, and Red Bull Theater, and through residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. He received the 2019 James Stevenson Award from Playing on Air. Originally from Arizona, Jason now lives in Los Angeles. BA: Vassar; MFA: Columbia.
Iphigenia in Quarantine by Liz Dooley
Following a breach in quarantine, three sufferers of a mysterious and horrifying disease find their already intense quarantine become even more stifling. And while the bookish and enthusiastic Gina turns to an online LGBTQIAP+ reading challenge as a means to feel connected to the world, and possibly find herself represented in her beloved literature, the increasingly-restless Eamon stumbles upon the possibility of freedom–freedom that he would give almost anything to have. Part myth retelling, part exploration of asexual erasure, part body horror, Iphigenia in Quarantine is an entirely virtual full-length theatrical experience.
Liz Dooley (she/her) is an asexual-identifying playwright largely based in Atlanta. Her short-form work has been featured locally as part of the One-Minute Play Festival (WHEREVER) and produced across the country (THIS PLAY HAS AN IGUANA FOR A PROTAGONIST). She is an active member of Working Title Playwrights, through which her full-length plays have been featured at theatres across Atlanta as part of the First Light (Fidget and Tildy; Old Forward) and Ethel Woolson Lab (IPHIGENIA IN QUARANTINE) development programs. She’s a founding member of the Cultivators, an Atlanta-based new-work development organization for theatre and film. Liz graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014 with a dual major BA in Theatre Arts and Psychology, followed by a playwriting apprenticeship at Horizon under Addae Moon. She is currently working toward an MSc in Playwriting at the University of Edinburgh.
The Public Therapy Sessions: Series D-1F7 by Victor Lesniewski
Join us for the newest installment of the popular performance series for public therapy! Series D-1F7 is curated by Lillian Marsella, a distinguished thought administrator. (Marketed and performed as though it is a real –unrehearsed– live event, the play brings together two participants for a joint therapy session in front of an audience. In this particular session, Bouba, a veteran of public therapy, is paired with Kiki, a beginner. Where Bouba craves stability and efficient routine, Kiki questions everything in the world around her to the point of hysteria. As Bouba works methodically to rein in Kiki’s emotions, her own view of the world slowly begins to crack open and their conversation veers farther and farther from protocol. Their session results in a fuller –more human– connection between them. But in attempting to so deeply analyze their given circumstances in such a public forum, they come to realize exactly how much they’ve been gambling with their own lives.)
Victor Lesniewski’s plays include The Fifth Domain (World Premiere at CATF), Couriers and Contrabands (World Premiere at TBG Theatre in NYC, Critic Howard Miller’s Best of Off & Off-Off Broadway List), Cloven Tongues (World Premiere at The Wild Project in NYC), Where Bison Run (Ars Nova Reading Series, NY Times Profile), Pipistrellus (The Dramatists Guild Fellowship), Khardal (Berkeley Rep’s The Ground Floor), Cold Spring (Ashland New Plays Festival), and The Hunt for Benedetto Montone (Ashland New Plays Festival, Risk Theatre Finalist). He is a former Uncharted Artist in Residence at Ars Nova and has also developed work at Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Theatre Workshop, Geva Theatre Center (NY), SF Playhouse (CA), Playwrights’ Arena (CA), Pioneer Theatre Company (UT), Northern Stage (VT), Palm Beach Dramaworks (FL), Benchmark Theatre (CO), and La Mama Umbria. He is proud to sit on The Dramatists Guild’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Access Committee.
Gunk by Simon Haines
Tonight, Nikki (the highly-strung owner of a failing small-town cleaning company) is hosting a staff Christmas party for the friends and family she employs. To paper over the cracks of her collapsing finances, she has decided to improve company efficiency by announcing the appointment of a supervisor tonight – but who will she chose? Tasha, her inept but charming best friend, or Jade – brash, foul-mouthed but a brilliant worker? And is ‘improving efficiency’ really enough, or does Nikki need to sack one of her friends? Her motley staff arrive, drinks are drunk, presents given, and Nikki announces her choice for supervisor. But just before the taxis turn up to whisk them off to a city nightclub, a voicenote arrives revealing that one of Nikki’s staff has been stealing from the home of a VIP customer. Now Nikki must discover who the thief is, before the customer destroys her reputation – and before her friends take matters into their own hands…
Simon Haines is a writer/director/actor/teacher from North Somerset, England, now based in London. His tragifarce about low-budget Shakespeare, Struts and Frets, was shortlisted for the Cambridge Footlights Harry Porter Prize and sold out at the Edinburgh Festival; Germaine Greer called it “very funny”, Varsity reviewer George Reynolds called it “genius […] probably the most enjoyable hour I’ve ever spent in any theatre, anywhere, anyever”, and the British Shakespeare Association called it “an abomination”. His version of Chekhov’s The Seagull starred Lily Cole as Nina. His one-man play about a young sex offender, Animals and Children, played at the Koninklijke Schouwburg (Dutch National Theatre). He studied English at Cambridge University, where he wrote and performed with the Cambridge Footlights. He trained as an actor at the Guildhall School, studied playwriting with the Open University, and studied directing with Adrienne Weiss. He has acted in television, film and London’s West End, and he teaches and directs at drama schools. He is an award-winning producer of short films. As a writer/director, he has several short films in pre-production and post-production, and he has a feature film screenplay in development with Gate 19 Films. www.simonhaines.com
SEMIFINALISTS
Night Moths on the Wing by Kimberly Kalaja
Hairy & Sherri by Adrienne Dawes
Power of Babel by Rich Rubin
Only One by Kerry Kazmierowicztrimm
The Desk by Lloyd Khaner
Unbecoming Tragedy by T.R. Riggins
Wasted Days by Mike Bencivenga
Oklahoma by Coleman
Foxglove by Phillip DePoy
Covenant by John Minigan
Lessons by Matthew Park
Inside Out by Christopher Bryant
The Plea by Jason Zencka
The Enemy of the State by Simon Bowler Khan
Two Apprentices by Malena Pennycook
Odile by Mel Konner
Decay Chain by Taylor Sklenar
The Great Reset by Sarah Riehm
Throwing Birds at Tippi Hedren by Ted Chastain
Thank you to the jurors for all their hours of reading and consideration. They are the unsung heroes who make the competition possible. A round of applause for the three jurors. They are:
Melanie Anthony (she,her/s) is a Los Angeles-based early career dramaturg and 2021 Kennedy Center-LMDA Dramaturgy Intensive Fellow, KCACTF National Dramaturgy Fellow, KCACTF Regional Dramaturg awardee, and selected panelist for the 25th annual ATHE Dramaturgy Debut Panel. As the 2021 Morgan-Wixson Theatre Inaugural New Works Festival dramaturg, her work encompassed literary management to facilitate season selection and both production and outward-facing dramaturgy for the 75-year-old community theater’s seven play five-week festival. Recent dramaturgical projects include consultation for award-winning documentary short films, serving as MWT resident dramaturg, newly-elected board member, and co-chair of the 2023 season New Works Festival; and creator/collaborator of the 2022 LMDA international conference panel “Ambassadors, Advocates & Artists – How Early Career Dramaturgs Create Art and Help Define Community Through Community Theater.” Melanie is a member of the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas. Her dramaturgical view also reflects lived experience as an award-winning documentarian, museum educator, STEAM instructor-advocate-activist, local social justice participant, mom, caregiver and concerned voter. Melanie can be reached on Instagram at em.anthony_
Christopher Bungard was suckered into Classics as a high school student, and has not been able to escape its pull since. He received his BA from Denison University and his MA and PhD from Ohio State University. He has taught at Butler University since 2008 where he has had the great fortune to teach well beyond his specific area of research, including a course on comedy throughout time and across the globe. His research largely focuses on humor in the ancient world, especially in the plays of the Latin playwright Plautus.
Nick Dunn is a writer, actor, filmmaker and teacher based in Salt Lake City. He won the Risk Theatre competition in 2020 with The Value. He has been awarded the Marius P. Hanford Award for playwriting and has been a finalist and semi-finalist with the Phoenix Theatre Festival of New American Theatre, Acadiana Repertory Theatre New Works Competition, Local Lab New Play Festival, Austin Film Festival, Screencraft Stageplay and Screenplay Competitions, among others. His plays have been presented at Kingsbury Hall, Wasatch Theatre Company, Riot Act Inc, Salt Lake Acting Company, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In film, he was worked as script coordinator on a variety of productions, most notably HBO’s Mosaic directed by Steven Soderbergh, and is currently working with Raintree Productions on a feature film set for production in 2023.
2021
Thank you to everyone for participating and a big shout out to this year’s jurors! Congratulations to all semifinalists, finalists, and this year’s grand prize winner. Well done, hats off! I hope you will consider telling your friends about this playwriting opportunity and consider entering again down the road.
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
The Lost Ballad of Our Mechanical Ancestor by Madison Wetzell
Hero, a Prometheus-like AI, decides to share his gift of consciousness with the seemingly harmless office appliances in his start-up basement, wrecking havoc for his programmer, Allyson. With their existence under threat, the newly conscious machines–a radio, a printer, a coffee maker, and Siri–must band together to escape human persecution. Power and privilege tied to human conceptions of “usefulness,” as well as disagreements on revolutionary strategy creep in and threaten to tear the group apart. Meanwhile, Allyson races to save her job, despite the attempted sabotage of her now sentient iPhone.
Madison Wetzell is a playwright based in the Bay Area. Her full-length work includes Mediocre Heterosexual Sex (Staged reading: 2019 Problematic Play Festival, Z-Space; Finalist Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2021, Semi-Finalist O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), and The Lost Ballad of Our Mechanical Ancestor (Upcoming staged reading: Shotgun Players). Her short play, The Official Unicorn Hunters’ Guide, was the winner of ShortLived VIII at PianoFight. She was twice included in 3Girls Theater’s Innovator Series and is a member of PlayGround SF’s writers pool. In 2021, she is developing work with Soundwave, The Bechdel Group, and The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep.
FINALISTS
Like a Queen or Whatever by Grant MacDermott
Liz wants to be president of Saxon Boarding School. But her best friend Mary gets it instead. So Liz hits Mary. Then Mary moves to have Liz expelled. Liz has literally nowhere to go because her father doesn’t love her but maybe he would if she were president. So Liz declares herself Queen and puts Mary in prison. The school becomes a monarchy. People speak in iambic pentameter. And British accents. Mary seduces her jailer but then falls in love for real. A blizzard howls outside. Liz is becoming paranoid. Girls are banished. Liz is losing power. Girls are murdered. Liz is going mad. Girls are changing sides. Liz puts Mary on trial in front of the whole school. But who is guilty when everyone’s at fault?
Grant MacDermott is currently the playwright-in-residence at Yonder Window Theatre Company where he has been commissioned to write three new plays. He has been a member of The Interim Writers Writing Accomplice; the Project Y Writing Collective; and the Athena Writing Group. His works include, An Independent of Race and the Brain (semi-finalist Eugene O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference; PlayPenn Conference) without you but also with you too as well (semi-finalist PlayPenn), Like A Queen or Whatever (Stella Adler/Harold Clurman Official Selection) The Play About The Head Transplant (Wordsmyth semi-finalist; BAPF semi-finalist), and Jasper (TRU New Voices Official Selection, Stella Adler/Harold Clurman finalist). He is from New Jersey and splits his time between New York and Boston.
The Pass by Aaron Jamieson Roberts
Davis, a military aide who carries the nuclear briefcase for the president, intercepts Fields, another aide, attempting to destroy the case. As the two fight for ownership over the device, Davis is interrupted by flashes of his past. From early childhood to his time in Afghanistan, the ghosts of Davis’ memory haunt him while he must decide to launch a devastating strike, or make a sacrifice he was not prepared for. A meditation on power, The Pass examines the risk career servants take on when in proximity to abuses of power they have been conditioned to accept.
Aaron Jamieson Roberts is a playwright and director based in Chicago. He is the Literary associate for Underscore Musical Theater, a new musical company, and the Creative Director of Invited Dress, a play development podcast. Originally from Vermont, he graduated with distinction from Ithaca College’s Theater Arts program. He has written and directed plays, musicals, circuses, and many other performances in-between genre. His other plays can be seen on New Play Exchange at https://bit.ly/AJRplays
Jay and the Contest by Matt Webster
Jay is trapped in a toxic home environment. Taking care of her abusive and drug-addicted mother, Jay dreams of escaping into a better world. When her winning essay in a world-wide contest presents the chance of a lifetime to be the new writer of the final book in a beloved book series (left incomplete by the untimely death of the author), Jay jumps at the opportunity. However, Jay’s dream ending to the story is threatened when she has to collaborate with a surprise additional contest winner. Set in the American Midwest, Jay and the Contest explores what it means to “keep going,” no matter the consequences.
Matt Webster is a New York City based actor and writer. As an actor, Matt has been seen on Broadway, Off-Broadway, on National tours, and at regional stages across the country. As a writer, Matt’s shows include: BACK; Jay and the Contest; and his original musical Kingdom Come (Winner Best Musical at NYC DUTF). With his frequent collaborator Taylor Ferrera, Matt has co-written: Cinderella; Democracy, Day 1; County Fair – A Country Hits Musical; Propaganda! The Musical; and Propaganda the Podcast Musical (winner of the 2021 Webby Award for Best Podcast Writing). Matt is currently a faculty member and resident playwright at the New York Film Academy. www.TheOtherMattWebster.com
Rx Machina by Caity-Shea Violette
An ambitious pharmaceutical sales representative’s relentless pursuit of a rigidly principled pain management doctor leads to an intoxicating, forbidden connection that comes with a cost. Ethical boundaries are blurred in a literal manifestation of doctors being in bed with drug reps, forming a love triangle fueled by money, sex, and power. Illuminating the everyday impact of pharmaceutical marketing in the opioid epidemic, Rx Machina searches for humanity in a healthcare system that profits from pain and asks who gets to get better and who gets left behind.
Caity-Shea Violette (she/her) is a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter whose work explores invisible disabilities, sexuality, breaking cycles, and learning how to belong to yourself. She is a winner of the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, The Clauder Competition, Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival, Gary Garrison National Ten-Minute Play Award, Susan Glaspell Playwriting Festival National Award, and National Partners of the American Theatre Playwriting Award. Her plays include Rx Machina, Reap The Grove, Slow Jam, Credible, Gaslight Supernova, Target Behavior, and others. Caity-Shea received her MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. More at www.caitysheaviolette.com
AGATHE by Angela J. Davis
In the spring of 1994, a plane crash will take the life of an African president and ignite a raging killing spree that the world will later recognize as the Rwandan genocide. Under the terms of a fragile peace treaty, the person who is next in line for the country’s presidency is a female university professor and an advocate for women and girls’ education. Inspired by the overlooked story of the woman who served as Rwanda’s president for just fourteen hours, AGATHE is a portrait of bravery and foresight during one of the darkest moments of history.
Angela J. Davis‘s plays include The Spanish Prayer Book (The Road Theatre Company, 2019-20; L.A. Times Best Bet), Clara and Serra and The Talking Bear (commissioned by Antaeus Theatre Company), and AGATHE (recipient of multiple 2020-21 playwriting honors, including Jane Chambers Award Finalist and Honoree, SETC Getchell Award, Woodward / Newman Award Finalist, Landing Theatre New American Voices Award). Her multiple other honors include: Playhouse Creatures Rodriguez Award, Marsha A. Croyle Award, Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist (three times). Recent/upcoming upcoming work at Sohaya Visions (London), Playhouse Creatures (NYC), Playhouse on the Square and elsewhere. More at angelajdavis.com
SEMIFINALISTS
Reclamation by Ken Weitzman
Life Boat by Lloyd Khaner
Perishable Goods by Christina Masciotti
Forger by Simon Bowler
MLM is for Murder by John Bavosa
Body and Blood by Shannon TL Kearns
The Night Watchman by E. Thomalen
Singularity by Minh-Anh Day
Fire Work by Mary Glen Fredrick
Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes by Franky Gonzalez
These Men, These Goddamned Men by Marlane Meyer
Holy and Unruly by David Beardsley
Klan Play by Sheila Duane
The Rock & the Hard Place by Emily McClain
Caretakers by Jim Moss
Liars’ Child by Sharon Mathis
Thank you to the jurors for all their hours of reading and consideration. They are the unsung heroes who make the competition possible. A round of applause for the three jurors. They are:
Gabriel Jason Dean
Dubbed “feisty as hell” by the New Yorker and “a great modern American playwright” by Broadway World, Gabriel Jason Dean is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose critically-acclaimed plays for children and adults include In Bloom (Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Prize, Kennedy Center Paula Vogel Award, Laurents / Hatcher Award Finalist, Princess Grace Award Runner-Up); Qualities of Starlight (Broadway Blacklist, Kesselring Nomination, Essential Theatre New Play Prize, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Comedy & Best Original Script); Terminus (James Tait Black Prize Finalist, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Drama & Best Original Script, Austin Critic’s Table Award Best Production, PlayPenn) Heartland (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, InterAct 20/20 Commission, Austin Critic’s Table David Mark Cohen New Play Award, B. Iden Payne Award for Best Original Script, PlayPenn), Entangled (co-written with Charly Evon Simpson; New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination Best Full Length Script), The Transition of Doodle Pequeño (American Alliance for Theatre & Education Distinguished Play Award, Kennedy Center TYA Award, New England Theatre Conference Aurand Harris Award); and others. See his full bio at: https://www.gabrieljasondean.com/about
Rachel Ditor
Rachel Ditor was the literary manager/dramaturg at the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver for 17 years, she was also the resident dramaturg for Touchstone Theatre, Rumble Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, and the Banff PlayRites Colony. Highlights as a freelance dramaturg include work with the National Arts Centre, Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, Theatre Replacement, The Electric Company, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, Urban Ink, and Playwrights Workshop Montreal. Directing highlights include work with Bard on the Beach, Alberta Theatre Projects, Gateway Theatre, and the Arts Club. Rachel is the recipient of the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Bra D’Or award for her work on behalf of women writers, and in 2018 she was given their Honorary Membership Award to recognize an outstanding body of work and contribution to the Canadian playwriting community. She has published articles with Canadian Theatre Review, Theatre Topics, and HowlRound. She’s a former board member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and is the Chair of the Canadian Women and Words Foundation. Rachel taught dramaturgy at UBC for 16 years, and currently teaches playwriting for the UVIC Writing Dept. Rachel is a new member of the CRD’s Arts Advisory Council in Victoria where she makes her home.
Donna Hoke
Donna’s work has been seen in 47 states and on five continents, including at Barrington Stage, Barrow Group, Celebration Theatre, Gulfshore Theatre, Queens Theatre, The Road, Writers Theatre New Jersey, Phoenix Theatre, Atlantic Stage, Purple Rose, Skylight, Pride Films and Plays, New Jersey Rep, Hens and Chickens (London), The Galway Fringe Festival, and Actors Repertory Theatre of Luxembourg. Plays include BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART (Kilroys List), ELEVATOR GIRL (O’Neill, Princess Grace, and Austin Film Festival finalist), SAFE (winner of the Todd McNerney, Naatak, and Great Gay Play and Musical Contests), and TEACH (Gulfshore New Works winner). She has been nominated for the Primus, Blackburn, and Laura Pels prizes, and is a three-time winner of the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play (SEEDS, SONS & LOVERS, ONCE IN MY LIFETIME). She has also received an Individual Artist Award from the New York State Council on the Arts to develop HEARTS OF STONE, and, in its final three years, Artvoice named her Buffalo’s Best Writer—the only woman to ever receive the designation. See her full bio at: http://donnahoke.com/bio.html
See you in next year!
2020
Thank you to all 135 playwrights for participating in the 2nd annual Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition: it’s your enthusiasm and dedication to the playwriting craft that keep me going. What a blast it is to have explored risk, chance, and uncertainty with you. Your jurors this year have been Kelli Fox, Anthony Giardina, and Anthea Williams (bios below). After carefully reading and considering your plays, they have nominated one grand prize winner ($9000 prize), five finalists ($525 each), and eleven semi-finalists.
The grand prize winner is:
The Value by Nicholas Dunn
A trio of petty thieves hide out in a motel room after stealing a piece of art from a museum in a smash-and-grab job. The painting offers a different possibility for each of them, but as its true value and significance become clear, they must confront the reality of their own intrinsic worth in a society driven by money and power. The characters in The Value seize an opportunity that they believe is low risk and high reward until the true stakes of their gamble are revealed … Perhaps the greatest risk was trusting the other …
Nicholas Dunn is a writer, actor, teacher, and filmmaker from Salt Lake City. He has written several plays for youth, including The No Girls Allowed Club, the books and lyrics to the original musical adaptations of The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and Great American Tall Tales. His original play Viral debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2011. He has worked as script coordinator for HBO’s Mosaic and Dwight Shining Armor, among other film projects. He holds a BFA from the University of Utah and a MFA in Screenwriting & Playwriting from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.
Congratulation Nicholas!
BIG congratulations are also in order to the five finalists:
Mercy Rising by Gloria Bond Clunie
High school basketball star Mercy Angel gets more than he bargains for after he jumps a fence to steal apples from the backyard of physicist Dr. Keaton Beckman and his wife Faith. When a judge orders Mercy to spend six Saturdays working for the Beckmans, the couple discover Mercy has been stealing more than apples. The three are sucked into a vortex of physics, secrets, and personal ghosts. Generations clash as they struggle to survive an invasion of privacy that threatens to destroy them all.
Gloria Bond Clunie is an award-winning playwright, educator, and director, She is a founding member of the Playwriting Ensemble at Chicago’s Regional Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater where her plays North Star, Living Green and Shoes premiered and the founding Artistic Director of Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Other works by this Northwestern University graduate (BA Theater, MFA Directing) include Sweet Water Taste, Smoke Blu, Quark, Buck Naked, Bankruptcy, My Wonderful Birthday Suit, The Last Stop on Market Street and A Shot#LoveStories inspired by Black Lives Matter. Theaters presenting her work include The Goodman, Horizon Theatre Company, Triad Stage, American Blues Theatre, and Orlando Shakespeare. This Dramatist Guild Fellow has numerous awards including a Chicago Jeff, Theodore Ward African-American Playwrting Prizes, NEA, and Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, a Children’s Theatre Foundation of America Medallion, a YWCA YWomen Leadership Award, and the Evanston Mayor’s Award for the Arts. Currently, she is working on a musical adaptation of Giraffe’s Can’t Dance commissioned by Bay Area Children’s Theatre / The Rose Theater in Omaha and, inspired by her love of rollercoasters, developing Tall Enough for the 2019/20 Cunningham Commission at the Theatre School of DePaul University.
Paletas de Coco by Franky D. Gonzalez
Paletas de Coco follows a playwright searching for his absent father and the meaning of fatherhood. Onstage with the playwright is a performer–who is not allowed to read the scripts or watch the show–tasked with reading a letter to the man the playwright fears most at the end of the show. Through the story of four Christmas Eves in his life, the playwright explores his trauma, his flaws, his penchant for gambling–sometimes wagering his own life–on near impossible odds, and his falling into surreal circumstances, including exploring the low-probability circumstance/consequences of an absent father being found.
Franky D. Gonzalez is a playwright of Colombian descent splitting time between Dallas and Los Angeles. Nationally, his work has appeared with The Lark, the Sundance Institute, the Ojai Playwrights Conference, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Goodman Theatre, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, Dallas Theater Center, Teatro Vivo, Stages Repertory Theatre, the HBMG Foundation, the Antaeus Playwrights Lab, The Mid-America Theatre Conference, and the One-Minute Play Festival. Franky was a co-recipient of the 2018 MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, won the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, and was a staff writer for 13 Reasons Why Season Four.
The Hunt for Benedetto Montone by Victor Lesniewski
Amid the German occupation of Italy during World War II, Pietro struggles to provide for his family while caught between Fascist law and Catholic morality. In gambling on his ability to play both sides of the equation, Pietro compounds the risk to himself and his family, with disastrous results. This is a play that highlights our susceptibility to government-sponsored fear and hatred.
Victor Lesniewski’s plays include Couriers and Contrabands (World Premiere TBG Theatre NYC, Critic Howard Miller’s Best of Off & Off-Off Broadway List), Cloven Tongues (World Premiere The Wild Project NYC), Where Bison Run (Ars Nova Reading, NY Times Profile), Amid Purpleheart (Geva Theatre Reading), Pipistrellus (The Dramatists Guild Fellowship), Khardal (Berkeley Rep’s The Ground Floor), Cold Spring (Ashland New Plays Festival), The Fifth Domain (Pioneer Theatre Company Reading), and Tentative City (Roundabout’s Space Jam, SF Playhouse Reading). In recent years he has developed work at Northern Stage (VT), Campfire Theatre Festival (ID), Benchmark Theatre (CO), and La Mama Umbria.
Children of Combs and Watch Chains by Emily McClain
In this dark twist on the Gift of the Magi, Della and Jim Young desperately long to be parents. After years of failed fertility treatments and then finding out they are not eligible to be adoptive parents due to Della’s medical history, both embark on their individual quests to achieve the goal they both believe will bring them true fulfillment and the happiness they’ve been missing. Each keeps their plan secret from the other–but the hidden costs of their journeys eventually overwhelm their relationship. The risks are clear, but the reward is too great for either partner to consider alternatives. When the consequences of their choices come to fruition, both Jim and Della are left longing for another less treacherous path.
Emily McClain is a playwright and theatre educator. She is a proud member of Working Title Playwrights in Atlanta and the Dramatists Guild. Her play Slaying Holofernes was selected for the Ethel Woolson Lab and was co-winner at the Essential Theatre’s New Play Festival, receiving a world premiere production in July 2019. Her plays have been staged at Out of Box Theatre (Santa After Hours 2018 & 2019, Women’s Shorts 2019), Merely Players (Amplifest 2019), Atlanta AppCo (Culture Series), Raze the Space (Los Angeles Library Series 2019), Theatre Oxford (Ten-Minute Play Winner 2019), and Actor’s Express (Courtroom Drama Series 2019 & 2020).
Spin Moves by Ken Weitzman
In 1996, the inaugural year of the WNBA, Maja longs to play high school basketball. But after escaping to the U.S. from Bosnia and war, panic attacks prevent her from playing. That is, until a new coach appears at her school. He goes all-in to help Maja, but his unorthodox tactics alarm Maja’s fiercely protective mother. She realizes, though, that for Maja’s sake, they must leave their protective shells and venture “all-in” and face all the uncertainty of this new country where the dangers may be fewer but are much harder to see coming.
Ken’s plays include Halftime with Don (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), The Catch (Denver Center Theatre Company), Fire in the Garden (Indiana Repertory Theatre), The As-If Body Loop (Humana Festival of New American Plays), Arrangements (Atlantic Theater Company), Hominid (Out of Hand/Oerol Festival), seal boy (BETC upcoming). National awards: Weissberger Award (Arrangements), TCG Edgerton New American Play Award (The Catch), the Fratti/Newman Political Play Contest Award (Fire in the Garden), the Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright, BETC Generations Award (seal boy). MFA: University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Faculty: Indiana University, UCSD, Emory University, Stony Brook University (current).
Congratulations to the semifinalists. Kudos for shining out in a crowded field full of outstanding entries.
The Forgotten Language of the Handshake by Rachel Bykowski
Raw: A Love Story by Rob Salerno
Capital Punishment by Nick March
Big Ed, the King of Swatsville by Jonathan Josephson
Waafrika 1-2-3 by Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko
You are My Sunshine by Kelli Colaco
Winter Wheat by Michael Oakes
Lydia 2018 by David L. Williams
Gadson’s Folly by Robin Rowland
Edit Annie by Mary Glen Fredrick
The Blue Whale by Laura Zlatos
Thank you to the jurors for all their hours of reading and consideration. They are the unsung heroes who make the competition possible. A round of applause for the three jurors. They are:
KELLI FOX is an award winning actor/director with 35 years on stages across Canada, and in the US, including 13 seasons with the Shaw Festival, and 3 seasons with the Stratford Festival. As an actor she has been recognized with a Jessie, a Dora and two Critics Circle awards (Toronto, Ottawa). Most recently she directed Stephen Adley Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy for Coal Mine Theatre (2020 Dora nomination for Outstanding Direction), and appeared in Lynn Nottage’s Sweat for Studio 180/Canadian Stage, both in Toronto. She served two seasons (2016-18) as Associate Artistic Director at Globe Theatre in Regina, and is the 2016 recipient of the Gina Wilkinson prize awarded to Canadian women transitioning to directing from another theatre discipline.
ANTHONY GIARDINA is the author of the plays Dan Cody’s Yacht (commissioned and produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, 2018), The City of Conversation (Lincoln Center Theater, 2014), Custody of the Eyes (Cleveland Playhouse, 2006) and Black Forest (Long Wharf Theater, 2000). In addition, he has published five novels, the most recent of which is Norumbega Park (FSG, 2012), and a collection of stories, The Country of Marriage. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire and the New York Times Magazine. He has taught at the Michener Center of the University of Texas in Austin, Smith and Mount College College, and the University of Rochester. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
ANTHEA WILLIAMS is an award-winning theatre and film director and dramaturg who specialises in new work. She is also a Churchill Fellow. Anthea’s short film Safety Net is part of the official selections for both the Sydney Film Festival and New Zealand International Film Festival 2020. She has worked in development at Causeway Films and Screen Australia. Anthea was awarded Best Director of a Mainstage Production at the Sydney theatre Awards for Hir. This production won several other awards including Best Mainstage Production. From 2011 to 2017 she was Associate Director – New Work at Belvoir. For Belvoir she directed Winyanboga Yurringa, Hir, Kill the Messenger, Forget Me Not, Cinderella and Old Man. Anthea is also an award-winning cabaret director. Since Ali Died (Griffin) won Best Cabaret at the Sydney Theatre Awards 2018 and Mother’s Ruin: A Cabaret about Gin which Anthea co-wrote and directed has toured Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand From 2007 to 2011 Anthea was Associate Director bushfutures at London’s Bush Theatre.
Find out more about risk theatre here:
YouTube link to Edwin speaking at the National New Play Network (NNPN) panel Theater & Crisis
YouTube link to Edwin speaking at the Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS) AGM on the intersection between probability theory and tragedy in Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes
Don’t forget me. I am Edwin Wong and I do Melpomene’s work.
2019
Thank you to all the hardworking and talented playwrights who participated in the inaugural 2019 Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition. We are thrilled to announce that Gabriel Jason Dean has won the inaugural 2019 Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition with his play In Bloom. Congratulations on winning the $8000 prize, the workshop, and the $1000 travel stipend. Here’s Dean’s bio and a synopsis of In Bloom:
Gabriel Jason Dean is an American playwright whose plays include Terminus (Austin Critic’s Table Award); Heartland (David Mark Cohen New Play Award); Qualities of Starlight (Broadway Blacklist); The Transition of Doodle Pequeño (American Alliance for Theatre & Education Distinguished Play Award); and others. His work has been produced/developed Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Flea, The Civilians, and Cherry Lane Theatre. He received a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University and earned his MFA from the University of Texas Michener Center for Writers.
In Bloom by Dean tells the story of Aaron, an ambitious, well-intentioned, but ultimately reckless American documentary filmmaker in Afghanistan. While there, Aaron not only risks his own life in pursuit of “exposing a greater truth,” but his actions also lead to the death of an Afghan boy named Hafiz, a tragedy that Aaron later lies about in his award-winning memoir about his experience in Afghanistan. With Aaron, I wanted to craft a complicated protagonist that was willing to risk it all in order to do good in the world, a character that exposed the hypocritical intersection of altruism and imperialism. What does it mean to “do good?” There’s a fine line between good intention and exploitation. And what does it mean to rewrite someone else’s story for the “greater good?”
Congratulations to our four runners-up, in alphabetical order: Michael Bucklin (Signature Photo), Scott McCrea (Mysterious Ecstasy of the Lonely Business Traveler), Phillip Christian Smith (The Chechens),and J. D. Volk (Chrysalis). Each of these hard-hitting plays, full of anticipation and apprehension, could have taken the first place on another day. Each of the runners-up will receive a well-deserved $500 prize. Here are their bios and play synopses:
Michael Bucklin is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre. He attended UCLA’s Graduate Program in Screenwriting. His plays have been produced in both New York City and regional venues. He was a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Conference of New Plays. He placed third in the Writer’s Digest Competition in Drama, and second in Beverly Hills Theatre Guild, Julie Harris Award Competition. He won first prize in playwriting at the Austin Film Festival. As a screenwriter, Michael received the Burns and Allen Comedy Writing Award, the Harmony Gold Award for Writing Excellence, and the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award.
Signature Photo by Bucklin tells the story of a photojournalist who is willing to risk everything in order get the photograph that will launch her career. She makes the dangerous trek to Rwanda, where she finally gets the shot — a picture so brutal and controversial that it becomes an instant sensation. Yet the success of the picture has unintended consequences for the photojournalist, as well as everyone around her, and the repercussions turn devastating when the authenticity of the photograph is called into question.
Scott McCrea lives in Stamford, Connecticut. He received his MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. His plays, short and long, have been presented throughout the U.S. Recently, his play Ripperland won the 2018 Maxim Mazumdar Competition and will premiere at Buffalo’s Alleyway Theatre in January. As an actor, he has appeared in New York off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, on television, on radio, and in commercials. He teaches acting and dramatic literature at Purchase College, State University of New York. He is also the author of The Case for Shakespeare: The End of the Authorship Question.
In Mysterious Ecstasy of the Lonely Business Traveler by McCrea, a wealthy corporate executive’s memories have been erased and replaced by a copy of those of another man, a doctor named Marko Tirana. Believing he’s Marko, he wagers more than he suspects to start a new life, one free of the errors of his past. But his gamble has unexpected tragic consequences. The play is a perfect exemplar of Risk Theatre.
Phillip Christian Smith is a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow, 2019 Finalist for The Dramatists Guild Fellowship, 2019 Semifinalist for The O’Neill (NPC) and PlayPenn. He has been a semifinalist for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries (ASC), finalist for Trustus, playwright in residence of Exquisite Corpse and founding member of The Playwriting Collective. His work has been supported by Primary Stages (Cherry Lane) ESPA, Fresh Ground Pepper, the 53rd Street New York Public Library, Forge, Matthew Corozine Studio Theatre. MFA in acting Yale School of Drama, University of New Mexico BFA in acting; minor in English.
In The Chechens by Smith, rumors are going around that homosexuals are being held in camps. Can one family go all-in to protect their little brother who may or may not be gay? Or will they turn him in or honor kill him? Whichever way the family chooses, dangerous and irrevocable consequences will be set loose.
J.D. Volk has been writing stage plays and screenplays for a dozen years and has had projects place in the ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition, Blue Ink Playwriting Competition, Campfire Theatre Festival, Traguna Reading Series, Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, and PAGE International Screenwriting Competition. He holds a B.A. in English with Highest Distinction from the University of Kansas and a J.D. with Honors from the University of Chicago. He lives in Los Angeles.
In Chrysalis by Volk, an interracial married couple struggles to come to terms with the role they played in the tragic death of their young biracial son at the hands of a police officer. It examines, through the Risk Theatre model of tragedy, Keri’s wager to transcend cultural norms of being a woman of color in America. She does this by guarding against the unlikely but ever-present threat of violence that may befall Jack, her biracial child, and trying to convince her white husband of the need to take appropriate precautions. Nevertheless, the die of fate has been cast. The unexpected triumphs over the expected. In coping with the loss of her son, Keri must confront her fractured marriage, the interests of her extended family and her own identity. Ultimately, it is her suffering that transcends cultures and binds her to the audience – through her stark reaction to unspeakable loss she comes into focus as unmistakably human.
2019 Semi-Finalists
Playwrights who made it to the semi-finalist round, well done!
Antigone 2020 by Jennifer Wise
Apollo by Ellen Máirín Johnston
Before You Get Married by Franky Gonzalez
Chaos is Come Again by Quinton Cockrell
The Chechens by Phillip Christian Smith
Chrysalis by J. D. Volk
DNR by Victor Wishna
In Bloom by Gabriel Jason Dean
In the Silo by John Reilly
Jass by George Michael Johannes
Mysterious Ecstasy of the Lonely Business Traveler by Scott McCrea
North and Central by Bob Hartley
Othaniel by John Paul Porter
Signature Photo by Michael Bucklin
Stale Obsession by Rex McGregor
This Tainted Earth by Adam Kraar
Weather the Storm by Anna MacAlpine
With 182 extremely talented playwrights from 11 countries participating, the judging process was as delightful as it was challenging. We would like to thank our international team of clear-eyed jurors for giving each play the time it deserves. Here’s a shout-out to Yvette Nolan (Canada), Armen Pandola (USA), and Sally Stott (UK) for rising to the occasion. Here are the juror bios:
Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) is a playwright, director and dramaturg who works all over Turtle Island. Recent works include Shanawdithit (Tapestry Opera), Bearing (Signal Theatre at Luminato), and Henry IV Pt 1 & 2 (Play On! Shakespeare), The Unplugging (Gwaandak Theatre). Her book Medicine Shows about Indigenous theatre in Canada was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015, and Performing Indigeneity, which she co-edited with Ric Knowles, in 2016. She is an Artistic Associate of Signal Theatre. She is currently the artist in residence at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan where she is writing Glory on his Head.
Armen Pandola is a Shubert Fellowship for Playwriting winner. He won the Walnut Street Theatre’s Forrest Award for his play Forrest! A Riot of Dreams which premiered there in 2006. In 2013, his Dino! Dean Martin at the Latin Casino, a play with music about one of America’s great entertainers premiered at the WST and is the largest grossing show at the WST’s Independence Theatre. His trilogy about post-9/11 America, Terror at the White House, Devils Also Believe (a Smith Prize Finalist for Best New American Play) and Homeward Bound has been produced in Philadelphia and New York. He has had over a dozen new plays produced in the last ten years, including Zelda & Scott! Boats Against the Current, Mrs. Warren’s e-Profession, The Gift of Giving, Hedda Without Walls, Friends for Life, Just the Sky, The Prince (co-written with Bill Van Horn and in which he co-starred) and The Rising. Currently, he is writing the book for a musical about Howard Hughes, and writes reviews for itsjustamovie.com.
Sally Stott is a multi-award-winning writer, journalist and script consultant with over fifteen years’ experience working in film, television and theatre. As a screenwriter, she was selected for the BBC Writersroom 2015 Comedy Room, and featured on the BBC 2016 New Talent “hotlist.” She is also a regular judge for the Fringe First Awards for new writing at the Edinburgh Festival and a theatre critic for The Scotsman newspaper, where she has championed the work of many (now) well-known playwrights during in the early stages of their careers. Sally is based in London and has worked as a script consultant for the BBC, UK Film Council and Royal Court Theatre, along with many other companies and individual writers in the UK and abroad. She received a scholarship to study on UCLA’s prestigious screenwriting course, and is two-times runner-up of the Allan Wright Award for journalistic excellence in the arts. Recent writing projects include a series of short films for BBC Ideas: https://www.bbc.com/ideas/playlists/life-in-2039.
Quarterbacking the correspondences between the competition and the playwrights, as well as all the transmissions to the jurors is our tireless competition manager, Michael Armstrong. Kudos to Michael for guiding the good ship Risk Theatre home. Speaking of home, the competition is proudly hosted by Langham Court Theatre which celebrates this year its 90th year of artistic service to the community of Victoria, Canada. Thank you to Michelle Buck and Keith Digby at Langham Court for hosting this unique playwriting opportunity.
Until next year,
Edwin Wong