5th Annual Short Play Festival: A Celebration of Shorts

Below is the call that was posted to writers that went out for our 5th Annual TASN Short Play Festival – 2022.:
See the following section for the latest updates.
 
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The Actors Studio of Newburyport, MA (TASN) is dedicated to New Play Development and will be holding its Fifth Annual Short Play Festival outdoors and over two weekends, August, 2022.. Our submission window opens on January 1, 2022 and closes on February 1, 2022, or until 240 plays have been received, whichever occurs first.
 
Length: 5-15 minutes. Send us your best. There is no theme and there are no restrictions on content. Workshops, readings, and several previous productions are A-OK.
 
Limit: One play per playwright. There is no fee to submit and each of our six winning Playwrights will receive a $50.00 stipend.
 
As we enter 2022, it’s likely that we’ll be on the outdoor-boards in August, producing and performing live theater in front of our wonderful audiences. But there’s a small chance that live theater will fall victim to variants and that we switch to a virtual offering. Either way, this show will go on. So, your play should be meant for the stage AND be easily adaptable to the Zoom format. A play with 10 characters, elaborate settings, and a lot of props, isn’t going to work. A play with five or less characters with simple technical requirements probably will.
 
 
Please submit a PDF version of your script (PDF’s only please, no exceptions) which includes all of your contact information. No Bios please. We’d like the work to speak for itself.
 
TASN is a 501c3 non-profit and your tax deductible donations are used to help defray the cost of producing our Festival which is dedicated solely to supporting and producing New Work. If you’d like to make a donation, checks made payable to: The Actors Studio of Newburyport, can be mailed to: The Tannery Mill #1, Suite 5, Newburyport, MA 01950. Also, donations may be made via the PayPal link on this page.
 
Our judges will participate in multiple rounds of readings and after 24 semi-finalists are chosen, we will hold our All-Day Selection Sunday Extravaganza, putting all semi-finalists on their feet. The six winners will be announced in June, 2022, with the top-scoring play receiving the coveted Clopton Prize.
 
This Festival is sponsored by our Weekend Writers Workshop whose playwrights have been produced at more than 250 venues around the country.
Good luck and see you at the show!
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Like us on Facebook or explore https://www.newburyportacting.org/ for more information about The Actors Studio of Newburyport.
 

TASN’s 5th Annual Short Play Festival & Celebration of Shorts:

On January 1, 2022 we opened our window for submissions to this year’s Short Play Festival. We received 280 submissions within 48 hours and closed the window promptly! Submissions arrived from 42 States and 9 foreign countries (UK, Ireland, France, Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Belgium, and Botswana!) and we engaged in 5 Rounds of reading and judging., over 5 months. Every play was read at least twice and some plays were read 6 or 7 times. And in our 5 years of holding our Short Play Festival, this year was the toughest by far, with many stage-worthy plays being not-selected and with the final cuts being extremely hard to make.

We then held our All Day Selection Sunday Extravaganza on June 26, 2022 where 16 Semi-Finalists were put on their feet via cold-reading. We voted for our favorites and here are our 8 Finalists:

The Total Spiritual, Rich Orloff (NY)
Jupiter, Marsha Roberts (CA)
Stealing A Kiss, Laurie Allen (TX)
Buried Treasure, George Sapio (NY)
The Ripple Effect, Arianna Rose (FL)
All Aboard!, Michael Burgan (NM)
Precipice, Alex Dremann (PA)
The Most Precious Thing, Amy Dellagiarino (CA)

Over two weekends: August 19-21 and August 26-28, 2022, at TASN’s new home: 109 Main Street, in the heart of downtown Amesbury, MA (formerly The Stage Two Pub and Movie Theater) these 8 winning plays will be combined with 6 new plays from our esteemed Local Playwrights of The Weekend Writer’s Workshop to make up TASN’s exciting 5th Annual Short Play Festival & Celebration of Shorts.

The plays from our local Playwrights are:

Dust Bunnies, Jack Rushton (Newbury)
One Night Stand-In, Adair Rowland (Amesbury)
Feud for Thought, Lawrence Nicholas Hennessey (Rockport)
The Big One, Scott Sullivan (Hamilton)
Last Laugh, David Susman (Kennebunk. ME)
A String of Pearls, Judith Strang-Waldau (East Greenwich, RI)

On behalf of TASN’s Board and Marc Clopton, TASN’s Founder & Executive Director, we thank all who submitted to our fun Festival.
Special thanks to our National Finalists, Congratulations! Your plays are terrific!
And special thanks to our Readers and Judges and to our Local Playwrights: This is going to be one-heck-of-a-show!

A Festival like ours can never exist without the passion, creativity, and talent of Playwrights and our local theater-makers. The Actors Studio of Newburyport is eternally grateful.

Directors and cast, as they are known, so check periodically for the latest

Weekend One: October 14, 15, 16, 2022 – Friday/Saturday 7:30pm, Sunday 5:00pm

All Aboard!, By Michael Burgan (NM)  –  Directed by Arlene Barnard, with Stefan Tsiplakis, Peter Nawroki, Ann Dooley, Jenna-Lee Motsis, and Katie Cunningham
Feud for Thought, by Lawrence Nicholas Hennessy (MA)  –  Directed by Nick Hennessy, with Mark Davis and Maureen Daley
The Ripple Effect, by Arianna Rose (FL)  – Directed by Kimm Wilkinson, with John Budzyna and Deidre Budzyna
A String of Pearls, by Judith Strang-Waldau (RI)  –  Directed by Marc Clopton, with Shannon Muhs, Sandy Farrier, and Bruce Deveau
Stealing A Kiss, by Laurie Allen (TX)  –  Directed by Jack Rushton, with Susan Van Drie and Steven Sacks
Last Laugh, by David Susman (ME)  –  Directed by Tim Diering, with Jim Manclark and Tim Diering
Precipice, by Alex Dremann (PA)  –  Directed by Jack Rushton, with Kathleen Cunningham, Scott Sullivan

Weekend Two: October 21, 22, 23 2022 – Friday/Saturday 7:30pm, Sunday 5:00pm

Jupiter, by Marsha Roberts (CA)  –  Directed by Bruce Deveau, with Stefan Tsiplakis, Casey Metcalf, and Ingrid Hunt.
One Night Stand-In, by Adair Rowland (MA)  – Directed by Anna Smulowitz, with Madeline Sherwood and Brad Ritchie
The Most Precious Thing, by Amy Dellagiarino (CA)  –  Directed by Ashley Risteen, with Ashley Risteen and Sarah Risteen
The Ripple Effect, by Arianna Rose (FL)  – Directed by Kimm Wilkinson, with John Budzyna and Deidre Budzyna
Buried Treasure by George Sapio (NY)  – Directed by Marc Clopton, with Sandy Farrier and Jocelyn Duford
The Big One, by Scott Sullivan (MA)  –  Directed by David Houlden, with Jim Manclark and David Holden
The Total Spiritual, by Rich Orloff (NY)  –  Directed by Anna Smulowitz with Alan Huisman, Kari Cretella-Nickou, and and Kristen Ledson

 

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