I’m thrilled to report that my drama “A Flower of the Field” is a finalist in a new play contest by the American Bard Theater Company!

American Bard Theater Company is based in New York that focuses on plays of dramatic, heightened language and of an artist-driven nature.

As they explain on their website:

“American Bard Theater Company approaches each play based on text analysis technique shared by the 14 individuals who studied Shakespeare together and wanted to create greater opportunities to perform. In our first few years, we presented various works by William Shakespeare in the “First Folio” text analysis style. Just like Shakespeare’s own troupe of actors, we maintain that “the play’s the thing” and root all our artistic choices back to the language in the script, with respect to the punctuation and word choice in order to guide our storytelling. By working through the lens of the playwright’s language and its structure to shape the actions on the stage, much as Shakespeare’s players did 400 years ago, we keep our rehearsals and performances targeted at creating the playwright’s unique world through cadence, intonations, and emotional energy evoked by the “music” of the script.”

Many, many thanks to American Bard for the great honor of being a finalist in their new play festival!

I am thrilled to report that my new drama “A Flower of the Field” is a finalist in the Shawnee Original Playwrights Series Festival (SOPS) – a new play contest sponsored by The Shawnee Playhouse!

The Shawnee Playhouse is a small theater located in the historic village of Shawnee on Delaware in Pennsylvania. Their productions include musicals, dramas, children’s theater, and original works presented by a variety of professional and community performers. The original playhouse was built way back in 1904 and was later burned down by an arsonist in 1985. Throughout, the Shawnee Playhouse has been a key focus of the arts in the Poconos region and draws a large degree of talent from the surrounding communities.

A 30-minute excerpt of “A Flower of the Field” will be read at 7pm ET on Saturday, August 27th alongside various other finalists for full-length and short-length plays, interspersed among productions of prior winners of the festival.

My play “Few Thy Voice” – a contemporary thriller – was also a finalist in Shawnee’s new play contest in the summer of 2014, so, after an 8-year hiatus, I am thrilled to have another play of mine showcased in this year’s annual festival.

I’m thrilled to say that my drama “A Flower of the Field” was chosen as The People’s Choice Award Winner of the 2022 new play contest by Tyler Civic Theatre Center.

My drama was given an excerpted, 40-minute reading on Saturday, July 9th, alongside three other contenders, and was voted by the audience in attendance as the play they’d most like to see mounted on TCTC’s stage.

As a result of this, “A Flower of the Field” will be given its premiere production during Tyler Civic Theatre Center’s 75th season next year – which is to say, sometime in 2023 you’ll be able to find me wandering around Tyler, Texas.

Many thanks to Kimberlee Ross-Martin, the Festival Coordinator, who directed the reading, and many thanks also to the awesome cast she assembled:

• Rodd Wayne as John Clyn
• Ron Ellis as Richard Ledrede
• Tom Marsh as Mathias O’More
• Lucinda Kittrell as Alice Kyteler
• Miriana Mason as Basilia de Meath
• Kimberee Martin-Ross reading Stage Directions

I’m looking forward to work with TCTC on the production of this piece!

It’s under a week away before the reading of my play “A Flower of the Field” at Tyler Civic Theatre Center in Tyler, TX!

My play will be read alongside the other finalists from 1:00pm-5:00pm CT on Saturday, July 9th.

Those interested in attending the event may purchase tickets at $5 per seat by going online here.

I’m thrilled to report that my exciting new drama “A Flower of the Field” has been chosen as a finalist in a new play festival sponsored by Tyler Civic Theatre Center in Tyler, TX!

My contemporary drama “Margo Asher Died Here” was previously featured in Tyler Civic Theatre Center’s 2020 new play festival, as well, where it received its first public reading in July, 2020.

Tyler Civic Theatre Center is a great local venue in Tyler, TX that has been serving the community for almost 100 years, starting as Tyler Little Theater in the 1920’s and expanding into Tyler Civic Theatre in the 1950’s, where the theater group opened the nation’s first building to be built specifically for in-the-round presentations.

Tyler Civic Theatre has been hosting its new play festival for 14 years, during which only a handful of plays are chosen as finalists and subsequently read before an audience, after which the “audience favorite” is chosen to be slated into the following year’s production season.

All of the finalists – including my play, “A Flower of the Field” – will be read before a live audience on Saturday, July 9th.

Additionally, Tyler Civic Theatre provided me with some readers’ critiques of the play, which I am pleased to share below.

Very creative piece. Written in a manner easy to visualize. 

The eternal battle between good and evil would be easily recognizable to the audience. 

Timely as it deals with the first “pandemic” in recorded history.

The writing is excellent. The story was highly engaging and not at all what I expected. Very well done piece.

Characters are very well written and archetypes are clearly defined.

Kept my attention and never deviated from the path. Was immediately interested in learning where the story would lead.

Many thanks to Tyler Civic Theatre Center for this honor!