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* * * 2009-2010 * * *
The Julie Harris
Playwright Award
FIRST AWARD TO:
REFUGE by Marc Kornblatt:
Two men meet on a secluded boardwalk along a
marsh in a bird sanctuary in the Midwest. Jim
brings a notepad and a gun. Laz brings a pile of
pills and a six-pack of beer. By the end of their
first encounter, the pills are consumed and the gun
goes off. Both men live. Jim and Laz meet again
and again in the same place to argue, cajole, circle
and embrace in a somber yet funny dance of death
that also draws Jim’s burdened wife and Laz’s
yearning girlfriend to the marsh to seek refuge and
renewal.
Marc Kornblatt of
Madison, WI began his theater career as an acting
apprentice at Peterborough Playhouse in New
Hampshire nearly four decades ago. After college
(Brandeis University), he moved to New York City
where he appeared sporadically Off-Off Broadway and
was seen, but rarely heard, in films directed by
Woody Allen, Ken Russell, Walter Hill and Sylvester
Stallone, among others. Between acting jobs, he
began writing plays. He has worked as a newspaper
reporter, earned a master’s degree in journalism
(New York University), published seven children’s
books and had plays produced in New York City, Los
Angeles, Detroit, Memphis, Ft. Lauderdale and
Madison, Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife and
teaches elementary school.
SECOND AWARD TO:
THE CARDIFF GIANT by Thomas Hischak:
In the 1860s, self-made
businessman George Hull creates a giant statue and
passes it off as a prehistoric man petrified to
stone. The newspaperman Calvin Triplett breaks the
story and soon thousands of people are paying as
much as a dollar to look at the discovery. Experts
call the creature everything from a petrified man to
a prehistoric statue to a total hoax. The notorious
King of Humbug, Phineas T. Barnum, offers Hull
$60,000 for the giant even though he knows it is a
fake. Hull turns Barnum down so the showman has his
own statue created and soon he is hawking it as the
“original” giant and selling tickets to see his
version in New York City. Reporter Triplett
stumbles across some evidence that the giant was
manufactured by Hull and sets out to find the truth.
But do Americans want the truth? Or do they prefer
a sensation?
Thomas Hischak of Cortland, New York is an
internationally recognized scholar. He is the
author of twenty-five published plays and
twenty-three books on American theatre, film,
musical theatre, popular music, and movie musicals,
including the award-winning “The Oxford Companion.”
His plays are produced across the United States as
well as in Canada and Great Britain. He is
Professor of Theatre at the State University of New
York College at Cortland where he received the
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and
Creative Activity in 2004. He is also a Fulbright
Scholar and has taught and directed American theatre
and film in Greece.
THIRD AWARD TO:
FARINGDON FOLLIES: The Making of a Grand Eccentric
by Bob Canning: Based on the unconventional
life of Lord Berners (1883-1950), composer, writer,
painter and eccentric, Berners was influenced by
some of the world's most creative, talented and
quirky personalities of his time, and some (e.g.,
Noel Coward, Salvador Dali and Gertrude Stein)
appear as characters in the play. He enjoyed going
through the town of Faringdon wearing a pig mask and
frightening the villagers, blowing bubbles in
restaurants, inviting a pet horse into the drawing
room for his tea parties, while the fantail doves on
his estate were hand-dyed every color of the
rainbow, a tradition that continues to this day. In
1935, the madcap Berners also built the last folly
(or tower) in England, but it was for his music,
books and paintings that he is best remembered.
Bob Canning of Petulama,
CA studied comedy writing with Danny Simon (Neil’s
brother), playwriting with Oliver Hailey and Doric
Wilson, and musical theatre at the Lehman Engel
Musical Theatre Workshop. He was a writer for the
Walt Disney Studios for 14 years and lived to tell
about it. He is a contributing writer for the
Harper Collins book, “George Lucas's Blockbusting
Movies,” which is now in its third printing. On
July 11, 2010, this play about Lord Berners will
have a staged reading in the village of Faringdon,
UK, to be headlined by well-known British stage and
film actor Jeremy
Bulloch.
PLAY COMPETITION FOR YOUTH THEATRE
MARILYN HALL AWARDS
* * * 2009-2010 * * *
FIRST AWARD TO:
YOUNG FREDERICK DOUGLASS by
Walt Vail: In 1828,
fourteen-year-old Frederick Douglass, then known as
Freddy Bailey, is sent to Baltimore, Maryland as a
companion slave to twelve-year-old Tommy Auld. There
Freddy teaches himself to read and write. He
attempts to teach other slaves, gets in trouble and
is re-assigned to plantation field work with a slavebreaker. Beaten down at first, Freddy rises to
defeat and to humiliate his slavebreaker. After
conspiring to escape slavery, Freddy is jailed,
threatened with being sold down to Mississippi or
possible death. Three years later, he plans his
freedom and, obtaining a free black sailor’s papers,
finally escapes slavery forever by boarding a train
to Baltimore. He becomes one of America’s great
leaders in the struggle to abolish slavery.
Walt Vail of Pitman, NJ
earned a Master’s degree in Playwriting at Penn
State. He has been Literary Manager for Society
Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia, and for Hedgerow
Theatre in Pennsylvania. He also acted in theatres
in the Delaware Valley, PA area. His play HATTIE’S
DRESS was produced Off-Broadway in New York by The
Open Eye: New Stagings. Recent productions were
done by The Vagabond Acting Troupe of Philadelphia
and by Love Creek Productions of New York. He is a
lifetime member of the Philadelphia Dramatists
Center, an active member of The National Dramatists
Guild, and a recipient of a New Jersey Council on
the Arts Fellowship.
SECOND AWARD TO:
EROS AND PSYCHE by Jessica Puller:
When Aphrodite, the
goddess of beauty, learns that she has competition
with a moral girl named Psyche, she sends her son
Eros to make Psyche fall in love with a pig so
she'll roll around in the mud and no longer be quite
so beautiful. Eros, however, becomes very taken
with the girl. He is impressed by the way she
rejects her suitors, not because of their wealth or
fame, but because none are able to carry on a
conversation. Secretly Eros learns that Psyche is
both intelligent and curious; precisely what he is
looking for in a partner. Determined to marry her,
he makes her suitors fall in love with her sisters
and has Psyche carried off to live in his golden
palace. There Psyche has everything she could ever
want, but soon she learns her sisters are trying to
steal her fortune, and Aphrodite is meddling with
Eros' affairs. The love struck couple run amok in
the palace. Eros and Psyche must learn which is
more powerful, love or jealousy.
Jessica Puller of Highland Parkk IL.
graduated with departmental honors from the
Northwestern University Theatre Program. While
there, her play "The Book of Dave" was a finalist in
the Agnes Nixon Playwriting contest. In 2008, her
honors thesis, "Women Who Weave" won the unpublished
play reading contest with the American Alliance for
Theatre and Education and has subsequently been
published by Playscripts, Inc. In 2009, her play
"The Creator" took first place in the Marilyn Hall
Play Competition for Youth Theatre. She is
affiliated with several theatres in the suburbs of
Chicago, including Citadel Theatre and the Piccolo
Theatre. Her website is at
http://sites.google.com/site/jessicapullersportfolio/home
HONORABLE MENTION TO:
MONSTERS? LOST AND FOUND by Barbara Ashley
of Laguna Woods, CA
Comedy Suitable for Middle School (Grades 6- 8).
* * * WINNERS FOR
2007 * * *
THE JULIE
HARRIS PLAYWRIGHT AWARD COMPETITION
FIRST
AWARD TO:
In the Middle of
Nowhere by Kent R. Brown
of Fairfield, Connecticut. In rural
Nebraska, Rebecca and Lucas Pender, a loving couple
in their upper years, stand transfixed as they
witness the collapse of the Twin Towers.
Insidiously, the trauma of 9/11 begins to unleash a
Pandora’s Box of repressed fears hidden deep within
Rebecca’s psyche. She loses weight, sanitizes the
house; even prowls gun shops and military surplus
stores. She refuses psychological assistance. Lucas
is frantic. He loves her desperately, can’t envision
life without her. So, together, they stockpile food
supplies and weapons, and build an underground
shelter. Finally, a believer now, Lucas stands in
their front yard -- flashlight in one hand, shotgun
in the other -- ready to defend his homestead
against the impending Armageddon that will surely
come.
Kent R. Brown
is a retired professor of drama at the University of
Arkansas and a former adjunct professor at Fairfield
University. His works have been produced by
People’s Light and Theatre Company, Walnut Street
Theatre, BoarsHead Theatre, West Coast Ensemble,
Boston Theatre Works, Pulse Ensemble, Moving Arts
and other theatres in the United States, Belgium and
Canada. Awards include: Norfolk Southern /Mill
Mountain, McLaren Comedy, Boston Theatre Marathon,
Drama-Logue and Denver Center Theatre awards. Kent is a
member of The Dramatists Guild. kentrbrown@aol.com.
SECOND AWARD TO:
COMPLICIT
by Joe Sutton of Montclair, NJ. A play
about the liberal media and the war on terror. A
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist is being hauled in
front of a special prosecutor and threatened with
the Espionage Act for revealing secrets about the
CIA black sites. What makes his circumstances more
poignant, he once wrote a column suggesting we could
no longer be squeamish about torture. In the days
after 9/11 we couldn’t “afford “ to be. He comes to
regret that column and, now facing a grand jury,
he’s confronting another ethical choice—whether or
not to give up his source with the CIA story.
Joe Sutton’s
provocative plays about politics, race and other
topical issues include Voir Dire nominated
for the Pulitzer Prize and the Best Play award of
the American Theatre Critics Association. His works
have been produced by BAM, Arena Stage, the
Cleveland Play House, and the Old Globe. Honors and
awards are the FDG/CBS playwrighting award, the Joe
A. Calloway Award and fellowships from the New York
Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment
for the Arts. He is also teaches playwrighting at
Dartmouth College.
THIRD AWARD TO:
THE FAULT LINE
by Frederic Glover of Brooklyn, NY.
A dark comedy set in Berkeley, California in the
present. A middle-aged couple, both attorneys,
whose once loving marriage is now falling apart due
to the husband’s recent job loss, find themselves
pushed to the emotional brink by the arrival of
their one time, political science professor. This
charismatic man seems to be living a life of active
revolution and may be wanted by the authorities.
When the professor tries to re-ignite his once
passionate affair with the wife, all three people
are forced to make comic and dangerous choices.
Frederic Glover’s
work has been performed at The Workshop Theater, The
Independent Theater, Jewish Repertory Theater,
Rembiko Theater, and the Provincetown Theater
Company. Awards: Tribute productions Sprenger-Lang
Award, New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship,
National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill
Center.
PLAY
COMPETITION FOR YOUTH THEATRE—MARILYN HALL AWARDS
FIRST AWARD TO:
I’M NOT NOTHING
by Kathy Kafer of Pelham, NY.
A fourteen-year old girl must deal with her
mother’s abandonment of the family (having realized
she was a lesbian) confronts her loss and the
onslaught of adolescent sex. The girl wonders if
she is gay, too, setting off a series of comedic
encounters with her friends and classmates. In the
end, the girl finally reconciles with her mother.
Kathy Kafer’s
plays have been produced in NY, the Abingdon
Theater, Algonquin Theater, Altered Stages,
Blueberry Pond Theatre, Lamb’s Theatre. Awards:
finalist in the 2007 Nantucket Short Play Contest,
finalist in the 2005 Stanley Drama, Dorothy Silver
and Writer’s Digest competitions. A former
journalist of freelance articles for the New York
Times, she now teaches at the S.A.R. Academy in
Riverdale, N.Y.
SECOND AWARD TO:
PROM NIGHT
by Sylvia Davenport-Veith of Oxford, GA.
A play about an awkward girl, Imena, who escapes
the unwanted advances of her drunken prom date and
runs into the woods. There she runs into the H.S.
football captain and Prom King who is fighting with
his drunken date. She pathetically passes
out. The Prom King and Imena start to share their
deepest secrets. He begins a romance with this
uncool girl. Together they create their own romantic
Prom Night magic.
Sylvia Davenport-Veith
earned a BFA in Theatre and M.Ed. in English
Education from the University of Florida. In
Atlanta, Georgia she taught theatre and directed
plays at Shiloh High School (a.k.a. Shiloh Onstage)
in Snellville. She is a member of the following
organizations: The Dramatists Guild of America; The
American Screenwriter’s Association; The American
Alliance for Theatre and Education; Working Title
Playwrights; and Atlanta Stage Write Productions.
Prom Night, published by Theatrefolk,
will be available in the Fall of 2008.
HONORABLE MENTION
NEVER EVER LAND by
Rosemary Zibart of Santa Fe, NM.
PADDY AND THE MERMAID
by Donna Latham of St. Charles, IL.
I HATE SHAKESPEARE
by Steph Deferie of Harwich, MA.
KATRINA: THE GIRL WHO
WANTED HER NAME BACK by Jason Tremblay of
Austin, TX.
* *
* WINNERS FOR 2006 * * *
THE JULIE HARRIS
PLAYWRIGHT AWARD COMPETITION
FIRST AWARD TO:
Violet Sharp
by William Cameron of Washington, Pennsylvania.
Based on a true story, Violet, a 27-year-old British
domestic in the employ of Charles Lindbergh’s
family, raises the suspicions of Harry Walsh, a
police captain investigating the kidnapping of the
Lindberghs’ infant son. Having initially lied to the
police as to her whereabouts on the night of the
crime, Violet strives to clear her name but only
manages to strengthen Walsh’s conviction that she is
guilty. As Walsh rigorously pursues a confession,
it becomes clear that Violet is being pursued just
as fervently by her own personal demons.
William Cameron is the
founding chair of the Theatre and Communication
Department at Washington & Jefferson College. He is
entering his 20th year of teaching and
has directed over 40 productions at W&J. His comedy
“Thespians” received Honorable Mention at the
McLaren Comedy Playwrighting Competition and was the
winner of the Midwest Regional Playwrights’
Competition. His plays have been produced at the
Source Theatre in Washingdon, DC, The Pittsburgh New
Works Festival, and the Rochester Civic Theatre in
Minnesota. As an actor, he has appeared on stage
and in nearly 20 feature and television films.
SECOND
AWARD TO:
Darwin at Down
by Gino Dilorio
of
New York City, New York. It is during
the Spring of
1849, and Charles Darwin is in the beginning stages
of his famous book, “On the Origin of Species.”
Egged on by his colleague Joseph Hooker, Darwin is
afraid of being scooped by other scientists working
on the same problem. But his wife is afraid that God
will smite Darwin and his family for publishing such
a controversial theory. When Annie, Darwin’s young
daughter, contracts a serious illness, Charles
begins to wonder if publishing these theories is
worth the ultimate cost.
Gino Dilorio’s plays have been produced at the
New Jersey Repertory Theatre, Urban Stages Theatre,
Penguin Rep, the Turnip Theatre Company, the
Metropolitan Theatre, and the Abymill Theatre, in
Fethard, Ireland. “The Hard Way” won 1st
place in the BBC’s 2005 International Playwrighting
Competition. Other awards include Urban Stages’
Emerging Playwrights Award and the Berrilla Kerr
Award.
THIRD AWARD TO:
The Bohemian Quartet by
L. J. Schneiderman
of Del Mar, California. Four string players try to
rehearse while waiting for the phone call telling
them whether they have been chosen to be finalists
in the career-launching Naumberg competition But
all sorts of personal difficulties interfere among
the four musicians such as: the male second
violinist awaits the imminent arrival of four
premature babies; the cellist is repeatedly badgered
by her ex-husband about their children. In the end,
the phone, which has interrupted them again and
again with news from the outside world--but not news
from the Naumberg—rings. What is the news
this time, bad or good? Instead of answering, they
let it ring and defiantly plunge into the
long-delayed rehearsal.
L. J. Schneiderman received a B.A. in
English Literature from Yale University, a M.D. from
Harvard Medical School. Besides a published novel
and short stories (Pushcart Prize nomination), he
has written thirteen full-length and five one-act
plays. He has had productions and staged readings
at several theatres, including the Soho Poly in
London, A.C.T. and the Julian Theatre in San
Francisco, the Mark Taper, Cast Theatre, and the
Connecticut Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theater.
His play, Screwball, was given a full
production at the South Coast Repertory in Costa
Mesa, California, and won a Drama-Logue award.
PLAY COMPETITION
FOR YOUTH THEATRE—MARILYN HALL AWARDS
FIRST AWARD TO:
Falling from Trees
by David Moberg of Port St. Lucie, Florida A
realistic picture of six teenagers facing
significant challenges to their identities and their
futures without the help of their parents, who
should be like the trees that surround the children
with wisdom and protection. But when one parent
dies, one parent disowns, one parent deserts, the
young people are compelled to seek comfort and
support from each other and discover their own
personal courage.
David Moberg has
directed, performed and taught theatre in Florida
since 1981. As Chair of Indian River Community
College, he has directed over 200 main stage and
touring productions. He received a BA in theatre
from Moorhead State University and his MFA in
Acting/Directing from the University of Florida. He
is a recent recipient of the Florida Theatre
Distinguished Career Award in the college/university
division.
SECOND AWARD TO:
Another Happy Ending
by Kenneth Buswell of Roslindale, Massachusetts.
Welcome to the confusing world of middle school
popularity. Chill likes Poor, but he can’t be seen
with her because she’s too low in the school
popularity rankings. Misfit, who tries so hard, is
wary of Flirt’s sudden friendliness. Rebel fights
the system. New tries to make friends. Panic’s
ranking is falling fast. Friendships are destroyed
as students do whatever it takes to rise to the top
of the rankings. But don’t worry—everything will
end happily. It always does in middle school
theater.
Ken Buswell is a middle
school math teacher working in the Boston area.
Along with thirteen students, he founded the Brown
Theater Experience, an ensemble middle school actors
that produced original plays which dealt with middle
school life in honest, thought-provoking and
innovative ways. This play was the ensemble's final
play.
HONORABLE
MENTION
A Forgotten Treasure
by Ann Marie Kennedy
Hamlet’s Ghost
by Lawrence DuKore
Mirror Image
by Harry Rosenbluth
John Henry
by John Hardy
Slippery Joe
by Patrick McIntyre
Seventy Years in Irish Mist
by Joseph P. McDonald
CALIFORNIA
MUSICAL THEATRE COMPETITION
Lost in
Hollywoodland Book
and Lyrics by Alex Wexler
of Los Angeles, CA
Music by Bill Parsley
* * WINNERS FOR 2005 * *
JULIE HARRIS PLAYWRIGHT
AWARD COMPETITION
First Place to:
The Organist by Mark
Eisman of New York, NY
Second Place to:
Motherhouse by Victor
Lodato of Tuson, AZ
Third Place to:
World Enough and Time by Maurice Weinblatt of Minneapolis, MN
PLAY COMPETITION FOR YOUTH THEATRE - MARILYN
HALL AWARDS
First Place to:
The Legend of Wenceslas by Walt Vail of Pitman, NJ
Second Place to:
The Goose Girl by Gary
L. Blackwood of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, Canada
Third Place to:
Aesop x Five by Robert
R. Lehan of Westfield, MA
CALIFORNIA MUSICAL THEATRE COMPETITION
First Place to:
Campaign of the Century
book by Robert L. Freedman of Sherman Oaks, CA,
Music by Steven Lutvak of New York, NY. Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman
and Steven Lutvak.
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