Island Theatre’s Ten Minute Play Festival kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24 at Bainbridge Performing Arts. Here’s the line-up of plays that will be staged this year.
ANASTASIA
A young real estate agent gets more than she bargained for when her first clients prove to have some VERY specific requirements for their dream house.
Playwright: Ned Thorne
Thorne grew up on Bainbridge Island. After taking degrees in English and Theatre from Whitman College, he relocated to New York City, where he currently works as a film and television editor while continuing to write plays and screenplays. His first feature film, “419,” will be released online this October on iTunes.
Director: Brian Danzig
Cast: Miranda Feldtman, Shannon Dowling, Ted Dowling
ANDRASTEIA
What begins with two elderly men ruminating about past events progresses into a drama about retribution.
Playwright: Charlie Hamilton
Hamilton has been involved in several plays with Island Theatre and Bainbridge Performing Arts both as an actor and in set construction. Writing seemed to be a natural progression and he is honored to have his play chosen for the festival.
Director: Steve Stolee
Cast: Bob McAllister, Tell Schreiber
ASSIGNED BLESSING
First-place winner. Two playwriting students become increasingly competitive in their efforts to complete their homework assignment.
Playwright: Connie Bennett
Bennett is a Kitsap County native who is often on Bainbridge these days visiting granddaughters Marisa and Olivia. Her short plays have been produced in Washington, Oregon, California, Michigan and Canada. Since 2009, she has co-produced the “Northwest Ten!”, a 10-minute play festival in Eugene, Ore.
Director: Fred Saas
Cast: Michelle Allen, Nathan Whitehouse, Sandi Spellman, Nathaniel Beuchler
THE BUTLER
When the craft project at the Sunrise Assisted Living Facility is “draw something that brings back a sweet memory,” the results at one table of women are not quite what you’d expect.
Playwright: George Shannon
“Six years ago I put on my galvanized boxers and finally made a wish come true — theatre. Since then I’ve studied with some of the best: Chris Soldevilla, Dinah Manoff, Matt Smith and Marya Sea Kaminski at Freehold Theatre. I am delighted to have my play, ‘The Butler,’ as part of this festival.”
Director: Rozzella Kolbegger
Cast: Diane Walker, Ruth Urbach, Carolyn Goad, Ted Dowling
THE CONSORTIUM
An all-female group of “Weather Underground” radicals take on a mission that may save or destroy their friendships.
Playwright: Erik Van Beuzekom
Van Beuzekom was raised on Bainbridge island and has been a theatre artist for nearly 40 years. He and his wife, Pattie, run The Paradise Theater School in Chimicum. He appeared on Bainbridge Island last February in “Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles” at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
Director: Tim Davidson
Cast: Keiko Green, Rilla Hughes, Tracy Dickerson, Meredyth Yund, Nathaniel Buechler
DINNER TABLE
The play explores a cathartic, late-life moment when a woman finally says what she never had the courage to say.
Playwright: Rob Dalton
Dalton has been a journalist, screenwriter, troubadour, author and creative director. From Addy-winning websites to short films and poetry, Dalton tells stories that matter. He lives on Bainbridge Island in the woods with his wife and two boys.
Director: Rozzella Kolbegger
Cast: Bob Tull, Victoria Brown
GINGERBREAD
Simple becomes complicated when two souls meet in a kitchen.
Playwright: Wendy Wallace
Wallace is excited to be participating again in Island Theatre’s Play Festival and to experiment with humans as characters rather than talking undergarments. As a freelance writer and blogger, her work appears in Bainbridge Island Magazine and at letthedogin.com. She’s currently working on more 10-minute plays and 10-minute pizzas and 10-minute dog walks.
Director: Diane Bankart
Cast: Marybeth Redmond, Hayden Longmire, Andrejs Zommers, Paula Elliott
HELPING HANDS
A young couple deals with a question: If you could change one thing about your significant other, would you?
Playwright: Keiko Green
Green most recently wrote/produced/starred in “Life.Cycle.” at the Eclectic Theatre in Seattle. Her work is frequently seen at Annex Theatre’s monthly showcase Spin the Bottle, and her original play “Operation Hibernation” will be a part of the Seattle Fringe Festival this September. Green has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from NYU Tisch Drama.
Director: Fred Saas
Cast: Tia Bannister, Nathan Whitehouse, Michelle Allen
HOFFMEISTER’S HYPOTHESIS, OR, LUCKY DUCKS
A Depression-era bank robber and his girlfriend, on the run from the law, unwittingly step into a time machine and travel forward in time to 1959.
Playwright: Paul Lewis
Lewis’ previous work includes musicals and a children’s opera. His short plays have had a number of productions around the country, and include “Oblivion,” to be published in “The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2014.” Lewis’ musical “The Hours of Life” will have its world premiere at Seattle’s Theatre22 in 2014. Member, Dramatists Guild of America.
Director: Bob McAllister
Cast: Joseph Adams, Charlie Hamilton, Kat Zommers, Caleb Adams
iCHAT
An email conversation between two opposing political views becomes an intimate chat.
Playwright: Judith Glass Collins
Collins’ short play, “Of Poisoned Pens and Palates,” was a winner of the “Find Your Own Voice” festival this past Spring at Peninsula College. She is a four-time winner of the Annual Playwrights’ Festival sponsored by the Arts Commission of Port Townsend and Key City Public Theatre.
Director: Diane Bankart
Cast: Darcy Clements, Marybeth Redmond
LUNATIC
A teenage girl attends a therapy session, only to discover that things are not as they seem.
Playwright: Miller Shor
Lunatic is Shor’s first play and was originally produced as a part of the 2013 Bainbridge High School Winter One Acts. Shor is a rising junior at BHS and is so excited to have this opportunity and exposure to the world of theater. A big thanks to everyone involved in bringing “Lunatic” to the stage!
Director: Bob McAllister
Cast: Kate Beddoes, Kat Zommers, Charlie Hamilton, Robin Simons
THE OPENING
An art gallery owner and artist both want the same thing, but go about getting it in complete different ways.
Playwright: Jeff Fraga
Fraga shared top honors (with Sara Scribner) in the 2005 Fields End/BPA playwriting workshop. He is currently rewriting his holiday musical, “The Elf in Charge of the Christmas Coal,” which was produced by Bellevue Youth Theatre in 2010. He has appeared onstage at Bainbridge Performing Arts in “Crazy for You” and “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” Member, ASCAP and Dramatists Guild of America.
Director: Steve Stolee
Cast: Robin Denis, Sean Fraga, Todd Erler
SCUZZYBUNNY
Jill, a therapist counseling other women on how to find love, finds herself attracted to Sam, an arrogant egoistic selfish slob.
Playwright: Karen Polinsky
“A long-term English teacher at Bainbridge High, Island Theater’s Ten-Minute Play Contest last summer inspired me to write my first play and, after that, to produce a festival of student-authored one-acts in my classroom. Last winter I contributed a 20-minute piece Every Place Is No Place to Freehold Theater’s Incubator Series. I am amazed and grateful for all of the support; too many people to name. Finally, a nod to Oscar Wilde, who reminds us that ‘to love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.’”
Director: Tim Davidson
Cast: Keiko Green, Meredyth Yund, Nathaniel Buechler, Justin Lynn
SUPERCITIZEN AND THE PARKING SPACE
Second-place winner. There’s an open parking space in downtown Seattle. Why are you still sitting there?
Playwright: Steve Palay
Palay is also the brains behind Palay’s Partial Theory of Everything, which explains the Absolute Value of the Cosmological Constant, the proof of which can be found in the margins of this document.
Director: Brian Danzig
Cast: Shannon Dowling, Bob Tull
