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* * * 2008--2009 * * *
The Julie Harris
Playwright Award
THE ANALYTICAL ENGINE by Jon
Steinhagen of Brookfield, IL. A comedy about an
enterprising young Connecticut woman in 1850 who
manages to build a working model of Charles
Babbage’s analytical engine. When she uses the
engine to find her perfect love match, the engine
singles out a local lawyer, much to the alarm of a
merchant who has loved her all along without
revealing his feelings. The woman, however, is
faithful to her belief in science and encourages a
courtship with the lawyer. Later, when the engine
has also chosen the lawyer as the best match for the
woman’s novelist sister, she finds her beliefs
shaken while the romantic entanglements sort
themselves out. Then at last the engine is
destroyed in a fire (that may or may not have been
an accident), the woman has the good sense to let
her heart do her thinking for her, not any machine.
Jon Steinhagen, a
resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and
associate member of the Dramatists Guild, has
received four Jeff Awards and six After Dark Awards
for his work in Chicago theatre for musical
direction, writing, and acting. In 2005 he received
a producer-writer initiative grant from NAMT to
develop his musical comedy The Teapot Scandals,
which received its world premiere in 2007 at
Porchlight Music. His plays include The Applewood
Pistols (an “original Chekhov comedy”), Dating
Walter Dante, The Velvet Gentleman, Second Mouse,
Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner! and Ponzi On
Sunday. A collection of four plays under the title
Perfectly Natural will be produced at the Midtown
International Theatre Festival in 2009. He has
appeared in leading roles in many Chicago
productions, most recently in Hedda Gabler.
SECOND AWARD TO:
JOHNNY HAS GONE FOR A
SOLDIER by William di Canzio of Drexel Hill,
PA. With echoes of Romeo & Juliet, this drama makes
a timeless story new, dynamic, and profoundly
moving. Just days after meeting Sarah in their New
England town, Dan is deployed to Iraq. Unwilling to
give her up, he persuades her to marry him before he
goes. Their passion is so strong, the lovers
becomes “present” to each other half a world apart.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi prisoner opens Dan’s eyes to
the humanity around him—and within him. As the play
advances to an ending both surprising and
inevitable, we are drawn into the lives, joy, and
heartbreak of those caught between love and war.
William di
Canzio
has written thirteen plays, staged at such
venues as the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Yale
University, Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Theatre of
the Open Eye, West Coast Ensemble, and Haverford
College. He has been a resident at the National
Playwrights Conference and, at the Camargo
Foundation in Cassis, France, by the Jerome
Foundation. He has taught at Smith College, Yale
University, and Haverford College. At Yale he was
also appointed dean of Trumbull College. He holds a
PhD from Johns Hopkins University and MFA from the
Yale School of Drama, where he was awarded the
Eugene O’Neill scholarship in playwriting.
THIRD AWARD TO:
MANDALA by Tom Diggs is a passion play
for one actor that explores surviving the AIDS
epidemic. A young man in the 1980s, caught between
coming of age as a gay man and navigating the
emerging health crisis, is certain he has contracted
the HIV virus and goes out of his way to avoid his
worst fears. He hides in Hiroshima, then off to
Katmandu and the challenges of peace of mind in the
Himalayas where he finally finds hope and ritual in
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. Can the magic and
mysticism of the East hold up to a Western empirical
HIV test? He comes to understand AIDS not as
purely physical, but also as a spiritual malady.
The metaphor of the play is the sand mandala, a
traditional Tibetan ritual of healing and
purification.
Tom Diggs’
work has been seen at major regional
theatres, including East/West Players, Intiman
Theatre, The Seattle Rep and Moving Arts (L.A.).
His play, “Harper Lee’s Husband” was a part of the
2005 Pittsburgh New Works Festival. In 2007, The
Kennedy Center and The National New Play Network
commissioned his play “Fair and Decent” about the
demise of The Fairness Doctrine. It has been
nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He graduated from
NYU’s Tisch of the Arts in 2007 with an MFA in
Dramatic Writing.
PLAY COMPETITION
FOR YOUTH THEATRE—
MARILYN HALL AWARDS
FIRST AWARD TO:
THE
CREATOR by Jessica Puller
of Highland Park, IL.
What becomes of an imaginary friend when a child no
longer believes? Zabrina never thought she'd have
to face that question. She and Sara would be
friends forever. But when Sara suddenly decides to
stop believing in fantasy, Zabrina finds herself in
a mystical waiting room, filling out the paperwork
necessary before she meets with the Creator, the
deity of all imaginary friends. Now, Zabrina has a
lot of questions about death and each imaginary
friend she meets in the waiting room helps her along
the journey of experiencing the five stages of
grief. Along the way, she relives some critical
moments in her relationship with Sara, all of which
might help her prepare to meet with the Creator.
Jessica Puller
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. She is affiliated with
several theatres in the suburbs of Chicago,
including Apple Tree Theatre, Citadel Theatre, La
Red Music Theatre, and the Piccolo Theatre.
SECOND AWARD TO:
OUT IN THE OPEN by
Virginia Antoinette Davis
of Decatur, GA. Casey, a
fifteen-year-old girl, is forced to choose between
her easy-going father (who has fallen in love with
another woman) and her unfeeling, crippled mother.
Life seems unbelievably serene until the stepmother
reveals a secret that's been kept from Casey since
she was three years old. Casey confronts her mother
with surprising results.
Virginia Antoinette
Davis had her
first play produced in Atlanta, GA in l972. After
retiring as Assistant to the Director of Theatre,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA, she began her
playwriting career in earnest. Her plays have been
produced in IL, NJ, VA, NC, and Off-Off Broadway
NY.
HONORABLE MENTION
SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE
by D.W. Gregory of Silver
Spring, MD
MAGGIE’S MAGICAL MIDNIGHT
by Nicolette Vajtay of
Denver CO
MARK TWAIN & LIVY
by Joseph P. Ritz of Hamburg, NY
CALIFORNIA MUSICAL THEATRE COMPETITION
2008-----2009
THE WINNERS
DANCING WITH ABANDON
by Karen Hartman of New York and
Phil Lebovits of Los Angeles, Alice Silverstein,
opera diva, the “Oprah of Opera” is about to receive
the Kennedy Center Honor for extraordinary talent
and philanthropy. But the return of her abandoned
rocker son, Dwayne, triggers a vicious scandal. Her
past career was diverted when she met an Italian
tenor and became pregnant. To follow her dream she
left her young son with the tenor. At eighteen,
Dwayne decides to reunite with his mother; the
resulting scandal leaves her career in shambles. She
blames her son and rejects him once again.
Devastated, he moves on to become an overnight
singing sensation. The two eventually reconcile and
merge their talents, fusing rock and opera.
Karen Hartman is a comedy writer/performer,
composer, lyricist and librettist. She started out
as an opera singer, winning the prestigious
Metropolitan Opera Auditions on the West Coast. She
has written comedy material, music and lyrics for
several musicals, HBO Comedy Specials, Showtime, and
nationally syndicated television. Karen has also
written and composed for the Emmy Award-winning
children's television show Zoobilee Zoo, in
which she starred with Ben Vereen.
Phil Lebovits has been a professional writer
and lyricist for over 20 years. His numerous
television development deals include: Witt-Thomas
Productions (Golden Girls), Jason Alexander’s
AngelArk Productions (The Whitey Show, Liquid
Soap), BBCWorldwide (Utopia) and The
Dennis Miller Show, Comic Strip Live and
a salute to Ford’s Theater on ABC. His 18
full-length interactive comedy murder mysteries have
played in over 50 cities in the U.S. and Canada. He
has written numerous songs for his rock group Gadget
and composed the opening song Shop ‘til I Drop
for the movie The Debtors starring Michael
Caine.
* * * 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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