2021 Best Play: WHITE ANGEL by Keith Whalen

White Angel
A young man is determined to get past the lobby guardian of his girlfriend’s dorm to share some important news, but the protective “dorm mom” is a stickler for the rules.

Dancing in the Elevator
Aided by a flamboyant fortune-teller, a troubled young woman finds the beginning of happiness at the bottom of her teacup.

Dorothea Cahan is an acting teacher, a director, a writer of historical fiction and of plays, both comedies and dramas. Her plays have been produced throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom and Mexico. A full-length play, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”, was nominated for Outstanding Original Writing by The Desert Theatre League. Her play “A Dream of Two Moons” appears in the Smith and Kraus anthology, The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2020. Three play excerpts are published in S&K’s The Best Monologues of 2020

Crime and Punishment
A wealthy abductee encourages an inept kidnapper to demand a higher and more appropriate ransom.

Arthur Keyser’s first submission to Theatre Odyssey’s Ten-minute Play Festival was Mid-Life Romance (2010).  At later festivals, that play was followed by The Visitor (2012, 2nd prize), School For Wives (2014) and High School Reunion (2015 Best Play). His full-length play, Before Steepletop, was produced as the winner of The Players New Play Festival (2018).  Arthur’s many short plays, published by Art Age Senior Theatre Center, are regularly performed throughout the country.

On Robots and Raindrops
Billy, retired and newly single, has been prescribed an in-home companion robot, but the learning curve may be too steep.

Monica Cross is currently living in Gainesville, Florida. She earned her MFA from Mary Baldwin University in 2013. She has taught theatre at New College of Florida, Ringling College of Art and Design, and University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. Monica’s first full-length play, Wonder of Our Stage, was winner of the New Play Festival at the Players Centre in 2018 and was produced as part of their Summer Sizzlers Series in 2019. She was a fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in 2019 and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Science Friction; or, the Rapid Deconstruction of a Rational Mind
A deep dive into her boyfriend’s sci-fi favorites sends Daisy into cosmic paranoia.

Ken Preuss is a former children’s magician, aspiring actor, deejay, and improvisational comedian who became a teacher to guarantee himself an audience 5 days a week. His published one-acts for teens include Shuffling, Alienated, and Campsite Chaos. His short plays, The Elusive Pursuit of Maximum Bliss Taking Sum Lumps, A Dave with Destiny, and more are produced world-wide. Although his plays have reached Australia, Canada, China, England, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and 48 of the 50 States, Ken can be found rooted near Orlando with his wife, sons, and assorted pets.

Sex, Lies and Styrofoam
Karen has been charged with cleaning her husband’s clothes prior to his art opening that evening. While folding clothes at the Laundromat, she is joined by Lucy, a middle aged woman with a saucy secret.

Arianna Rose is an award-winning playwright and musical theatre writer, produced in 24 states and 7 countries. Miami-Dade County Division of Cultural Affairs 2019-2021 Playwright Development Program with Kia Corthron.  2019 Finalist, the Kleban Award for Musical Theatre. 2012 MAC Award winner for Song of the Year. 2021 Florida Festival of New Musicals. Full-Lengths: Touch the Moon; The Lost Girl; The Equivalent of Sensation.  Numerous short-form plays and musicals. NYC’s York Theatre NEO (New Emerging Outstanding Musical Writer).  NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, Regional Ambassador – Dramatists Guild, New Play Exchange.  www.ariannarose.net

Togetherness
Henry is at peace in his coffin till his ex-wife Flo joins him in the burial plot.

Jan Wallace is an actress, playwright and director and is thrilled to have her play included in this year’s festival. She has directed and acted in former Theater Odyssey productions.  As an actress she has worked off-Broadway and New York Regional theatres.  Her favorite roles include her one-woman show, Shirley Valentine, Noises Off (Dotty Otley/Mrs. Clacket), The Prime of Miss Jean Broadie (Jean Broadie), and The Shadow Box (Maggie). Since moving to Sarasota she has performed at the Asolo Rep, the Banyan Theatre, the Manatee Performing Arts Center and the Players Theater.  She trained in London and New York.

Undue Influence
Outraged to discover that her share of her parents’ estate went to her brother’s church, Amy Lynn launches a campaign to humiliate her brother.

Laurie Stoner has written numerous feature screenplays and short scripts. She is the moderator of Sarasota Screenwriters which hosts table readings for screenwriters, and has written, directed and produced a number of award-winning shorts as a member of the community film group, Southwest Florida Films. With film production shut down during the pandemic, fate nudged her to take a Ten Minute Playwriting Class and write Undue Influence. She credits the warm welcome and workshops hosted by Sarasota Area Playwrights Society for her “beginner’s luck” success with this play. 

ADJUDICATORS

Nova Myhill

Nova Myhill is a Professor of English & Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at New College of Florida and a co-artistic director of [performance @ new college]. She teaches British  literature before 1700 and drama in all periods and has directed numerous student productions, most recently John Redford’s The Play of Wit and Science (1540). Her scholarship focuses on spectatorship in the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries and the intersection between theory and practice in both historical and contemporary performance. 

James Monaghan

James Monaghan (Dramaturg and literary manager) is proud to be wrapping up his second season at Asolo Rep which he considers his artistic home. Prior to becoming the resident dramaturg at Asolo Rep last season, he wrote about theatrical design as the Tow Foundation Fellow in the Roundabout Theatre Company Archives, created a one-on-one theatrical experience entitled [antidote] for the National Theatre of Croatia in Rijeka, served as the dramaturg for Leaving Eden, which won Best Musical at the 2019 New York Musical Festival, and worked in the literary department of the Play Company in New York. He has been a resident artist at the Catwalk Institute, was recently featured in the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas’ newsletter and just finished directing a digital production of Spring Awakening with the Georgetown Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Before completing his MFA at Columbia University, James worked as an educator and director in his hometown of Houston, Texas. He holds a BFA, from New York University.

Pam Wiley

Although she has spent most of her life in front of an audience or camera, Pam Wiley has become thoroughly engaged in directing for the theatre. She has previously directed for the Manatee Players Mornings At Seven, The Miracle Worker and W;T, Driving Miss Daisy, Calendar Girls and Tuesdays With Morrie. For the Players Centre in Sarasota, she has guided Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest, Neil Simon’s Rumors, Arlene Hutton’s Letters to Sala, a special version of It’s a Wonderful Life, Violet, Smell of the Kill, Moon Over Buffalo, Blown Sideways Through Life and numerous stage readings. Pam has directed various ten-minute plays for Theatre Odyssey, produced and directed for breast cancer research funding numerous Got A Minute shows and directed Lynne Bernfield’s one-woman performances, Under The Radar and Bashert. On stage she has been seen in NYC, Los Angeles and Florida.  Some recent favorite roles include Lotte Schoen in Lettuce and Lovage, Thelma in Night Mother, and Daisy Werthern in Driving Miss Daisy.  For thirty years Pam appeared regularly in TV Commercials. Her “Ancient Chinese Secret, Huh,” award winning Calgon commercial aired for eleven years. Pam is a member of the Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and TV Artists.