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Asparagus
 A
teenager in a panic stumbles across a homeless man living
in an empty lot. But as their pasts begin to catch up with
them, they find that their only hope for survival lies with
each other.
Playwright: Schatzie Schaefers
Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska
Current Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Schatzie
Schaefers is a playwright, director, actress, and radio
personality who lives in Anchorage, Alaska. She is a producer
of and regular participant in Alaska Overnighters, where
plays are written, rehearsed, and fully staged in the span
of twenty-four hours. Schatzie’s plays have been produced
at the 8x10 Festival in Fairbanks, The University of Alaska
Anchorage, The Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez,
The San Francisco Short Leaps Festival, The Harvest Theatre
of Toledo, & The South Camden Theatre of New Jersey.
Her natural disaster-inspired Snow in Galveston was
produced at the Impact Theatre of Brooklyn in February of
2007.
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Bobby
Hebert
 Two
men struggle to cope with boredom and anxiety in the wake
of a disaster much greater than themselves.
Playwright:
Samuel Brett Williams
Hometown:Hot Springs, Arkansas
Current Location: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Samuel
Brett Williams' plays have been produced at Mile Square
Theatre, New Orleans Theatre Experiment, Readers Theatre
Repertory, and District of Columbia Arts Center. His plays
have been selected for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights’
Conference, the Philadelphia New Play Festival, The Hatchery
Festival, and the New Plays from the New South Festival.
His plays have received staged readings at Rorschach Theatre,
Flashpoint Theatre, Luna Stage, and Working Man’s Clothes
Productions. Brett came in third place for the 2005 Playwright
of Merit Award and second place for the 2006 Playwright
of Merit Award. He teaches Screenwriting and Expository
Writing for Rutgers University.
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Close
Encounter
 A
chance meeting at a mall food court between two powerful-seeming
people shows the darker side of life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness.
Playwright: Amy Tofte
Hometown: Brookings, South Dakota
Current Location: Los Angeles, California
Amy
Tofte graduated from the University of Iowa where she
worked with writing mentors John O'Keefe and Art Borreca.
She continued to write while studying acting in NYC. Amy’s
plays and other solo pieces have been produced in the Midwest,
New York, Mississippi and Los Angeles. She received an Arts
Alliance Grant for development and production of her one-woman
show CATRIX that played in Mississippi and Los Angeles.
Amy has acted professionally around the country and takes
great pride in helping to produce other playwrights. She’s
currently developing a new theater company in Los Angeles
that will be managed by playwrights.
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Human
Resources
 A
cowboy and a bureaucrat explore the meaning of manifest
destiny in this unusual job interview.
Playwright: Mike Folie
Hometown: Belford, New Jersey
Current Location: Congers, New York
Mike
Folie's plays have been produced Off Broadway, regionally
around the US and internationally, winning several awards.
His full-length plays include The Adjustment, Panama,
Lemonade, Slave Shack, Naked by the River
and Love in the Insecurity Zone. His short comic
play, Sexual Perversity in Connecticut, was recently
seen in New York at both the Samuel French Short Play Festival
and the NY Cringe Festival. His most recent play, Alfred
Kinsey: A Love Story, was commissioned by Broadway and
film producer George W. George, and produced in NYC at the
Michael Weller Theatre. Mike is a resident playwright at
New Jersey Repertory Company. He is most proud of being
the husband of Frances Mayer and the father of Brendan and
Elizabeth.
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Interpreting
A Dream
 Ivania
is having trouble adjusting to her new country. Her well-meaning
principal and her assigned bilingual “friend” try to get
through to her. When those who speak the same language fail
to communicate, how can you interpret a dream?
Playwright: Judy Klass
Hometown: New York, New York
Current Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Nineteen
of Judy Klass' one-act plays have been produced.
Her full-length plays Transatlantic and Damage
Control have been produced in NYC. Her unproduced full-length
Stop Me If You've Head This One won the Dorothy Silver
Award in 2006. Judy co-wrote the Showtime cable film "In
the Time of the Butterflies", based on the novel by
Julia Alvarez. It has won Alma and Imagen awards, stars
Salma Hayek, Edward James Olmos and Marc Anthony, and is
out on DVD. Her screenplay "Au Pair Girl" is under
option. Look for songs from Judy's CD "Brooklyn Cowgirl"
at iTunes, myspace and cdbaby.
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The
New Sign
 It
is one month after the September 11th attacks. At a roadside
restaurant in the Southern United States, two restaurant
workers struggle to create the sign of their times.
Playwright: K. Biadaszkiewicz
Current
Location: Wyandotte, Michigan
K.
Biadaszkiewicz is a playwright, poet, novelist, essayist,
and short story writer. Her work has been published and/or
produced in the US and Europe
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Please
Pass The Salt
 Knife,
Fork, Spoon, Cell Phone. The classic American family dinner
gets upgraded to the 21st century when the entire family
brings technology to the table.
Playwright: Debbie Wiess
Hometown: Lexington, Massachusetts
Current Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Debbie
Wiess is a Boston-based playwright and screenwriter.
She writes in English, as well as in French, and has developed
a number of projects of various lengths and subjects for
both theatre and cinema independently and in collaboration.
Her work has been presented throughout the USA. Her 25-minute
3-act Theatre of the Absurd play Le Salon/The Living
Room, which she wrote in French and then translated
into English, was presented bilingually in Boston last fall
through the French Library to celebrate the 100th anniversary
of Samuel Beckett. This past spring she attended Edward
Albee's Great Plains Theatre Conference where one of her
short plays had been accepted to the Play Labs. This will
be the fifth production and NYC premiere of her play Please
Pass The Salt. In addition to writing, she directs and
has been involved in film and theatre productions in Boston
and NYC in a variety of capacities. She is very active in
the local film and theatre communities, as well as several
Boston cultural organizations. She was recently seen on
stage at the Shubert Theatre in the Boston Lyric Opera's
production of Le Nozze De Figaro.
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Shift:
A Political Allegory
 Patriotism,
lies and barfights. Three rowdy servicemen encounter a jaded
bartender on their last night before they ship out.
Playwright: Jordan Smedberg
Hometown: Crete, Illinois & Minocqua, Wisconsin
Current Location: Brooklyn, New York
Jordan
Smedberg has been writing plays, short stories, travel
essays and articles in NYC for the better part of a decade.
In 2003 she teamed up with Mariel Goodu to co-write, co-direct,
and co-produce Teaching Einstein To Read at walkerspace
in Manhattan. Her original full length play, Lucid,
premiered at New York International Fringe Festival in August,
2007. She was also a featured playwright in The Next Big
Thing Festival at the Rock Theatre in Manhattan. Her play,
Shift: A Political Allegory, premiered at the Strawberry
One Act Festival in Manhattan in August, 2007.
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Alarm
Michelle
wakes up delighted to find her usually exhausted husband Kevin
more amorous than usual. It is only when she discovers why the
change has occurred that she begins to feel afraid...
Playwright:
Paul N Moulton
Hometown:
Chicago, Illinois
Current
Location: Palatine, Illinois
Paul
N Moulton has spent ten fantastic years as a playwright, actor
and stage manager in Chicago’s vibrant storefront theater community.
His short pieces include Heat, Click (Fat Jimmy
theater company), Breakroom, Change, March
(Artistic Home Theater), Webernacht (Blatnoi Underground Music
Society), and Defense (Second City Theater). Of his full-length
pieces, Iron Muse theater company produced Accomplices
in 1999 and both American and Start! received stage
readings at Chicago Dramatists, where Paul is a member of the
Playwright’s Network. He unwinds by writing political satire for
a monthly review called “Democracy Burlesque.” Many thanks to
his beautiful wife Margaret.
Appetite
Snickers
has a problem. She and her friends have all developed eating issues.
They feel they have no control over their lives, that they are
not listened to, and that their enthusiasm is discouraged by those
they love most. Also, they're dogs.
Playwright:
Caren Skibell
Hometown:
Dallas, Texas
Current
Location: New York, New York
Caren
Skibell is a native Texan with a master’s degree in playwriting
from New School for Drama. Her plays have premiered in many festivals
such as Bailiwick’s Winterfest, and her ten-minute play, Jesus’
Blood won Honorable Mention at FirstStage Hollywood One-Act
Contest in Los Angeles. Caren is a graduate of Northwestern University
and The Second City Conservatory. While studying at Northwestern
she started an improv group that ran for a decade. She has performed
on many Chicago and New York stages, including at The New York
International Fringe Festival, and she is a member of The Dramatist
Guild of America.
Followed
A young
woman on her way home late at night gets the inexplicable feeling
that she is not alone.
Playwright:
Edith Weiss
Hometown:
Mittelschefflenz, Germany
Current
Location: Denver, Colorado
Edith
Weiss is the author of ten published children's plays, productions
include Unidentified Female Objects, Dancing with the
Jihad, Hoping to See God, Checkmate, Holy
Couch, and God's Religion. Favorite recent acting roles
are Peggy in The Fourth Wall, Florence Unger in The
Odd Couple, Female Version, and Grandmother in Moon Over
Buffalo. Ms. Weiss is also an accomplished stand up comic
whose shows have taken her from Alaska to Philadelphia, as well
as three overseas tours entertaining the troops in Japan, Okinawa,
Korea, Bosnia, Croatia and Macedonia.
Here
To Serve You
An airline
passenger becomes alarmed when he finds an abandoned shoe in the
terminal. Can we feel secure without losing our freedom...or our
minds?
Playwright:
Barbara Lindsay
Hometown: Santa Monica, CA
Current
Location: Seattle, Washington
Barbara
Lindsay’s first full length play, Free, won the NY
Drama League's 1989 Playwrighting Competition and was subsequently
given its premiere production in London in 1991. Since then there
have been more than 100 national and international productions
of her plays and monologues. She has taught writing in California,
West Virginia, and Washington. Her new full length play I-2195
won the Women’s Playwrighting Award at the UM St. Louis and was
produced there in Nov. 2005. Babs is a fifth generation Californian
living in Seattle, WA, newly married, and ridiculously happy.
Moment
Hannah
and Matt stumble upon an argument between a couple in a public
park. A lot can happen in a moment.
Playwright:
Matt Haldeman
Hometown:
Abington, Pennsylvania
Current
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Matt
Haldeman has taught public school in Washington DC, the Bronx,
and a small village in East Africa. He graduated in 2007 from
Harvard's Graduate School of Education and he is currently attending
Harvard Business School. His short plays have been produced in
theaters in places such as New York City, Boston, and Chicago.
He is the author of A Matter of Interpretation, a book of short
plays for children and he has written on education for various
publications, including the Washington Post.
Night
Before Last
Sacco
and Vanzetti have been in prison together for seven years. It
is the night before their execution. Surely they know each other
inside out. Or do they?
Playwright:
Doug Reed
Hometown: Richmond, VA
Current
Location: Stoughton, WI
Doug
Reed grew up in Richmond, VA and now makes his home in Madison,
WI where he does wretched things by day in order to feed his writing
habit. Night Before Last is his New York City debut as
a playwright. Doug's work has been featured in the Ten by Ten
Festival in Carrboro, NC, Transient Theatre in Chicago, Sacred
Fools in Los Angeles, Mercury Players in Madison, WI, and many
other locations. Doug is also an actor, and can be seen as the
waiter in Episode 2 of the popular internet series "Chad
Vader".
Normal
Is A Country
After
experiencing physical and emotional trauma overseas, a young soldier
comes home to his mother and tries to mend.
Playwright:
Steven Schutzman
Hometown:
San Francisco, California & New York, New York
Current
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Steven
Schutzman is a playwright and fiction writer, the author of
seven published books and of numerous plays and stories in literary
journals including The Pushcart Prize, TriQuarterly, Alaska Quarterly
Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Third Coast, Scene 4 and the
anthology The Art of the One Act. His plays have been produced
at New Jersey Repertory, Cleveland Public, Baltimore Theatre Project
and Revolution Theatre in Chicago among many others. He is a five-
time recipient of Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist
Grant Awards and a three-time top-tier finalist for the Eugene
O’Neill Center’s National Playwright Conference. His one-act,
Tree Man, won first prize in the First Stage L.A. One-Act
Contest/2004.
Onus
on Us
Millie
and Peg's small town is full of dreams for a better future. They
dream of unlimited toilet paper and a new Hummer, but for Skylar
the dream is about cleaner air. Do you have to have something
before you can save something?
Playwright:
Cheryl Games
Hometown:
Youngstown, Ohio
Current
Location: Redondo Beach, California
Cheryl
Games is an actor, playwright and part-time caddy. Her plays
include: Augusta (Paul T. Nolan One-Act Play Award, Writer's
Digest Award), Half-Baked, Little Death (Actors
Theatre of Louisville 10-Minute Play finalist), Trip Twenty
(Greater Columbus Arts Council Fellowship, Best-In-Fest Award),
Wedding Date, Devil Strip, Tears for Sale,
One On The Way, Practice Round, To Be Confirmed,
Onus On Us and Daisies Don’t Grow Where The Sun Don’t
Shine. Her plays have been produced in New York, Los Angeles,
Greenville, SC and Columbus, Ohio. Cheryl received an MFA from
the Actors Studio Dramatic Arts Program at the New School University
in New York.
Peace
Talk
People
need to fight as much as they need to talk, or what's the point
of talk?” Two very different “Irish” men on violence, ownership
and belonging.
Playwright:
James McLindon
Hometown:
Schenectady, New York
Current
Location: Northampton, Massachusetts
James
McLindon will have have four full-length and four ten-minute
plays produced this year in theaters across the country, six of
them world premieres. His play, Distant Music, a finalist
for the Kaufman and Hart Prize for New American Comedy, enjoyed
three productions this spring, including a sold-out run by the
Image Theater in Lowell, Mass. which will be remounted in Boston
this October. His play, Dusk (formerly, The Garden of
Dromore) opened in Los Angeles in July and has been optioned
for an off-Broadway run. A Brief History of Penguins and Promiscuity
will open in Los Angeles in November.
Prospect
Park
A little
girl takes interest in a young man who shares her neighborhood.
On this beautiful day in the park, they both discover things that
they took for granted are not as they seem.
Playwright:
Brendan O'Brien
Hometown:
Raynham, Massachusetts
Current
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Brendan
O’Brien, a 22-year-old Massachusetts native, is a graduate
of the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at NYU’s Tisch
School of the Arts. He has spent more time on the technical side
of the arts in recent years, working as a sound technician on
such films as Across the Universe, I Am Legend and
most recently Afterwords. Although Brendan has directed
productions of The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Dancing
at Lughnasa, this is the first play he has written, and he
is both humbled and excited by the experience.
Run
of the River
A father
has one more chance to go fishing with his son.
Playwright:
William C. Kovacsik
Hometown:
Massapequa, New York
Current
Location: Boulder, Colorado
William
C. Kovacsik received his MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie
Mellon University, where he was on the faculty from 1994-2001.
His play The Masrayana won the Joseph Jefferson Citation
Award as Best New Work in Chicago, 2005-2006. Scales of Justice
received its premiere at the Long Beach Playhouse in 2002, and
was published last year by Playscripts, Inc. In 2003, Pillar
of Salt won the Lilly Foundation Hanover College Prize for
plays dealing with spiritual vocation. Mr. Kovacsik is a recovering
attorney and is currently working on a doctorate in theatre history
at the University of Colorado.
Simultaneity
Natalie
is being torn apart by her mother and her best friend, and the
medication isn't helping. Everything happens too fast when everything
happens all at once.
Playwright:
Melanie Wallner
Hometown:
New York, New York
Current
Location: New York, New York
Melanie
Wallner recently graduated from Columbia Grammar and Preparatory
School graduate, where she was awarded the Citizenship and Character
Award, Community Service Award, and the Acting Award. During her
sophomore year, she participated in the year-long program, City
at Peace, a worldwide nonprofit organization designed to teach
teens how to resolve conflicts and become community leaders, using
the performing arts as a tool. Last summer, she published four
articles regarding the college process on the Huffington Post,
and this year, wrote her first play, Simultaneity. She
is thrilled to participate in the ID America Festival. Melanie
is a freshman at NYU.
Soapbox
Two
orators compete and try to explain society's ills to an innocent
bystander.
Playwright:
Carl Brandt Long
Hometown:
Cleveland, Ohio
Current
Location: Manassas, Virginia
Carl
Brandt Long is a playwright, actor, and director in Northern
Virginia. His plays, The Fairy Tale, Irena's Song,
Soapbox, and The Apple have received productions
across Virginia, in Cleveland, and in Iowa. Carl has appeared
onstage in such roles as Cyrano (Cyrano de Bergerac),
Oates (Terra Nova), Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet), and
Bottom (A Midsummer Night's Dream). Directing credits include
A Christmas Carol, Antigone, and The Two Gentlemen
of Verona.
Superhero
Leonard
and Rachel find their superpowers in a demanding and discouraging
world of evil cat ladies and landlords.
Playwright:
Mark Harvey Levine
Hometown:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Current
Location: Pasadena, California
Mark
Harvey Levine's plays have been produced throughout the world,
from New York to Prague to Casablanca. An evening of his plays,
Aperitivos, has been playing in Brazil (translated into Portuguese)
since 2005 and is currently on a National Tour there. Other evenings
of his plays, Cabfare For The Common Man and C'est Levine,
have played in Los Angeles, Boston and Indianapolis. His plays
have been published in "Laugh Lines" (Vintage) and "Best
Ten Minute Plays" 2004, 2006 and 2007 (Smith & Kraus).
His Shades won Best Play and Audience Favorite in the 15
Minute Play Festival in New York.
To
Darfur
Ryan
is depressed about Darfur. With so much apathy surrounding him,
how can he put his money where his mouth is?
Playwright:
Erik Christian Hansen
Hometown:
Monroe, Connecticut
Current
Location: Monroe, Connecticut
Erik
Christian Hansen graduated from Sacred Heart University in
2002. In 2004, The Eclectic Company Theatre produced his play
After School Special in North Hollywood. His one-act play,
Acronym, was staged for an AIDS benefit in South Carolina.
The Gallery Players staged his play, The Sex of our Lives,
as part of their 8th Annual Black Box Festival. In October of
2005, his play The Ethan Hawke Thing was staged for AT/WAS
Theatre Company. In August of 2006, his play Cabin Echoes premiered
at The Complex in West Hollywood. His play, Same Only Different
was a semi-finalist for the 2007 O’Neill Conference.
Upgrade
Kurt
Heller is a coach kind of guy. So when he is upgraded to first
class and seated next to the fabulous Jeanne Marie D'Argent, he
sticks out like a sore thumb. A one-act, with leg room.
Playwright:
Albert Pergande
Hometown:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Current
Location: Orlando, Florida
Albert Pergande writes
plays, film and theater reviews in Orlando, Florida for Ink19
magazine and The Orlando Weekly. Upgrade was his first
produced play, and reflects his experiences working in a corporate
technical job that requires a great deal of travel. He has recently
had short plays produced in Orlando, Minneapolis, New York, and
Detroit. All of his full length efforts remain undiscovered, but
he has been kicking around some ideas for a short film with his
drinking buddies.
