Fourteenth Annual Student Ten-Minute Playwriting Festival

Venice Student Wins Verna Safran Prize for Best Play

BEST PLAY: The Waiting Room — Cristina Bickerstaff and Jill Schroeder in THE WAITING ROOM by Venice playwright Delaney Lockwood.

THE WAITING ROOM — Cristina Bickerstaff, Scott Ehrenpreis, playwright Delaney Lockwood, Jill Schroeder, director Glenn Schudel.

Student Playbill Cover 2026 — CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE FESTIVAL PLAYBILL

Delaney Lockwood’s THE WAITING ROOM, in which two mothers find reason to support each other in a hospital waiting room—until new facts emerge—received the Verna Safran Prize of $1,000. Delaney is a student at Venice High School. Her play was directed by Glenn Schudel and featured performances by Jill Schroeder, Cristina Bickerstaff, and Scott Ehrenpreis.

Alisha Hunter and Easton Laviolette in TWO MINUTES TO GO by Norah Courtwright.

TWO MINUTES TO GO — Director Yinoelle Colon, Katherine Powell, Alisha Hunter, playwright Norah Courtwright, Jill Schroeder, Easton Laviolette, Gabriella Sands.

TWO MINUTES TO GO, a humorous look at speed dating by Norah Courtright of East River High School, Orlando. Directed by Yinoelle Colon, the play was 2026 Runner-up, earning Norah a $500 award.

THE CONFESSION—Zackary Chapman and Thomas Finn in THE CONFESSION by Lillian Donahue.

THE CONFESSIONS—Lee Gundersheimer, Zackary Chapman, playwright Lillian Donahue, Thomas Finn, director Gabe Ortiz

In an unusual development, the festival adjudicators, Scott Keys, Candace Artim, and Tom Aposporos, made Special Mention of a third play, THE CONFESSION, by Lillian Donahue of Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School, Bradenton. The judges urged Theatre Odyssey to provide the playwright a special award to encourage the play and its important moral questions be expanded as a one-act.