4th Annual International STAGE IT! 10-Minute Play Festival Has Announced Winners For Publication

The 4th Annual International Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival has announced the winners for this year's publication, now in it's fourth volume. The unique competition began with open submissions in October, garnering 346 plays from around the world, and a unique adjudication process. The top 25 plays have been selected for publication in Stage It! 4: 10-Minute Plays. The book is released in conjunction with the Festival weekend, March 20-22, where many of the plays will be produced.

More than 30 states were represented in the playwrights' submissions as well as plays from Australia, Canada, France, Luxembourg, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The adjudication process included 31 judges, most coming from Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Florida, with others from Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, with three coming from Canada and one from Australia. All judges have had professional experience as actors, playwrights, directors, producers, designers, critics, writers and/or filmmakers. Each play received a critique from each judge and is then rated. The top-scoring 20-25% became semi-finals. The plays are re-read by judges who have not seen them to help determine the finalists.

FINALISTS:

• · A Life Assembled by Kirt Shineman of Phoenix, AZ
• · Breakdown in Babel by Alex Goldberg of Burbank, CA
• · Charlotte by Alex Bulova of Fairfax, VA
• · Crossroads by Mark Okladek of New York, NY
• · Dance Class by Teri Foltz of Fort Thomas, KY
• · Dark Matter by Donald Loftus of New York, NY
• · Don't Toy With Me by Andrew Lyman Black of Columbia, MO
• · Dostoevsky by Jonathan Josephson of Pasadena, CA
• · First Contact by Joe Carlisle of Croton-on-Hudson, NY
• · Handiwork by Judd Lear Silverman of Brooklyn, NY
• · Intervention by Richard Ciccarone of San Francisco, CA
• · Last Call by Aviva Fleising of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• · Last First by Martin Keady of London, United Kingdom
• · Locker 142 by W. L. Newkirk of Celebration, FL
• · Mime Stop by Steven San Luis of Johns Island, SC
• · No Honor by Craig Moeckly of White Bear Lake, MN
• · One More Run by Kathie O'Brien of Corvallis, OR
• · Private Dick by Judy Klass of Nashville, TN
• · Ricky and Ready by Colleen Nicole O'Doherty of Omaha, NE
• · Single Rider by Michelle Pascua of Celebration, FL
• · Sister of Experience by Colleen Nicole O'Doherty of Omaha, NE
• · Ten Minutes to Close by Andy Wasif of Beverly Hills, CA
• · The Story of "Oh" by James Robert Colgan of Wallingford, KY
• · The Tinkerbell Situation by Marc Paykuss of Chestnut Hill, MA
• · Turnaround Time by Vicki Riba Koestler of Alexandria, VA
• · Unreasonable Situations by Lindsey Brown of Auckland, New Zealand

Winners include comedies and dramas of varied styles from the sublimely ridiculous to the issue-oriented. Local actors participate in the directing, casting and performance.

The competition is done in a blind-judging process which often creates interesting results. The Center for Performing Arts is delighted that two women each had all of their submitted plays make the semi-finals: Teri Foltz and Emily Hageman. Playwright Colleen Nicole O'Doherty has the distinction of having two of her plays make it into the publication.

The following playwrights were semi-finalists: Greg Atkins, William Cameron, Delvyn C. Case, Jr., Lela Chesson, James Robert Colgan, Elijah Diamond, Bethany Dickens, Steven Doloff, Jeff Dunne, Shawn Erker, Kara Fedurek, James C. Ferguson, Diane & Chriss Finney, Seth Freeman, Ed Friedman, Ed Friedman, Oded Gross, David Haddad, Emily Hageman, Emily Hageman, CJ Hendricks, David Brendan Hopes, David Brendan Hopes, Arnie & Debby Johnston, Bruce Karp, Elaine Kuracina, Lori Londagin, Richard Manley, Becky McLaughlin, Joan Milburn, McKenzie Moser, Guy Newsham, Jennifer O'Grady, Nedra Pezold Roberts, Steffi Rubin, Robin Russin, Don Salvo, Leslie Sanderson, Matthew Sheridan, Frank Shima, Chuck Smith, Elisabeth Speckman, Ken Teutsch, Laura Town, Joseph Tufano, Jana Wimer, Loretta Bolger Wish and Rosemary Zibart.

Stage It! International 10-Minute Play Festival runs March 20-22, 2020, 7:00pm evenings and 2:00pm matinees.

Stage It! 4: 25 Ten-Minute Plays will be published by March 20 and available at the Festival as well as ordering online.

Tickets: 239-495-8989, www.artcenterbonita.org