Ninth Annual Student Ten-Minute Playwriting Festival
Entries accepted now through November 15.
Eight new plays will be accepted for production. A panel of judges will select Best Play and Runner-Up, with playwrights receiving cash scholarships of $1000 and $500, respectively.
This year Theatre Odyssey is utilizing the vehicle of Radio Theater for the first time. While we still hope that all submitted scripts will be suitable for live production once theaters reopen to the public, playwrights now have the opportunity to set their stories in times, places, and situations that might offer sensory elements of storytelling that can enrich the plot. These elements (such as gunshots, footsteps, phone rings, etc.) can stimulate the audience and allow their imagination to envision the action whether they can see the actors or just hear them.
2020 Student Festival Winners
THE THEATER MAN by Kea Kamiya (State College of Florida Collegiate School), a sweet and sentimental play about a theater owner despondent about the closing of his establishment but visited by characters from the past who remind him of the wonderful things he and his theater did for them, won Best Play and a $1,000 scholarship thanks to the generosity of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. The play was directed by Robert Ennis Turoff and members of the cast were Don Walker, Grace Casanova, Olivia Yagy, Derek Dutcher, and Jenny Aldrich Walker.
Pine View School’s Spencer Opal-Levine penned THE DRILL. An emergency alarm at a school is the backdrop for a frank and sensitive discussion about the pressures felt by today’s high school students. Directed by Mark Woodland, the play’s cast included Paul Mullen, Tami Vaughan, Tyler Gevas, Roxy Gevas, and Olivia Yagy. The playwright receives a $500 scholarship, also from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, for his effort.
The Executive Producers for this year’s festival were the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and Paragon Festivals.
- A Whole Lot of Nothing by Sarah MacPhail, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School
- The Benjamin Franklin Act by Elaina Mizak, Pine View School
- Love is in the Air by Emily Hikade, Riverview High School
- Past Life by Mia Mariano, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School
- The Clock by Maxine Mandt, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School
- The Jeffrey Effect by Kassandra Haakman, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School
- The Drill by Spencer Opal-Levine, Pine View School
- The Theater Man by Kea Kamiya, State College of Florida Collegiate School
Executive Producer
Executive Producer
Supported by Cultivar Designs