Tragedy Playwriting Competition Announces Winners!
The 2019 Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition is pleased to announce the winner of our inaugural competition.
Gabriel Jason Dean’s beautiful and moving play, In Bloom, will take home our cash prize of $8000 (Canadian). Mr. Dean, whose plays have won numerous awards, lives in Brooklyn, New York. In Bloom tells the story of Aaron, an ambitious, well-intentioned, but ultimately reckless American documentary filmmaker in Afghanistan. While there, Aaron not only risks his own life in pursuit of “exposing a greater truth,” but his actions also lead to the death of an Afghan boy named Hafiz, a tragedy that Aaron later lies about in his award-winning memoir about his experience in Afghanistan.
As part of the prize, In Bloom, will receive a professional workshop and public reading at Victoria’s Langham Court Theatre in mid-August. Watch for upcoming details. A sponsor of this exciting competition, Langham Court Theatre has been producing theatre for 88 years in the city of Victoria.
The Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition has also chosen four runners up, each of whom will receive a cash award of $500 (Canadian). They are:
- Signature Photo by Michael Bucklin of Los Angeles
- Chrysalis by J.D. Volk, also of Los Angeles
- The Mysterious Ecstasy of the Lonely Business Traveler by Scott McCrea of Stamford, Connecticut
- The Chechens by Phillip Christian Smith of New York
(Short bios of all five finalists can be found below.)
The Risk Theatre competition is sponsored by Edwin Wong; whose book, The Risk Model of Theatre: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected, was published by Friesen Press in February 2019. Edwin developed the risk theatre model to align tragedy with modern concepts of chance and uncertainty. His thoughts on theatre as well as excerpts from his book can be found at melpomeneswork.com. Wong received a MA in Classics from Brown University where he concentrated in ancient theatre.
These five plays were chosen from 182 submissions received from 11 countries. Seventeen plays from the United States, Canada, England and New Zealand made it through to the second round from which these five were chosen as finalists.
The panel of jurors represented three countries:
From Canada, we had Yvette Nolan (Algonquin). Yvette is a playwright, director and dramaturg who works all over Turtle Island. Recent works include Shanawdithit (Tapestry Opera), Bearing (Signal Theatre at Luminato), and Henry IV Pt 1 & 2 (Play On! Shakespeare), The Unplugging (Gwaandak Theatre). Her book Medicine Shows about Indigenous theatre in Canada was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015, and Performing Indigeneity, which she co-edited with Ric Knowles, in 2016. She is an Artistic Associate of Signal Theatre. She is currently the artist in residence at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan where she is writing Glory on his Head.
Representing the United States, we had Armen Pandola. Armen is a Shubert Fellowship for Playwriting winner. He won the Walnut Street Theatre’s Forrest Award for his play Forrest! A Riot of Dreams, which premiered there in 2006. In 2013, his Dino! Dean Martin at the Latin Casino, a play with music about one of America’s great entertainers premiered at the WST and is the largest grossing show at the WST’s Independence Theatre. His trilogy about post-9/11 America, Terror at the While House, Devils Also Believe (A Smith Prize Finalist for Best New American Play) and Homeward Bound has been produced in Philadelphia and New York. He has had over a dozen new plays produced in the last ten years, including Zelda & Scott! Boats Against the Current, Mrs. Warren’s e-Profession, The Gift of Giving, Hedda Without Walls, Friends for Life, Just the Sky, The Prince (co-written with Bill Van Horn and in which he co-starred) and The Rising. Currently, he is writing the book for a musical about Howard Hughes, and writes reviews for itsjustamovie.com.
Representing the United Kingdom, we had Sally Stott. Sally is a multi-award-winning writer, journalist and script consultant with over fifteen years’ experience working in film, television and theatre. As a screenwriter, she was selected for the BBC Writersroom 2015 Comedy Room, and featured on the BBC 2016 New Talent ‘hotlist’. She is also a regular judge for the Fringe First Awards for new writing at the Edinburgh Festival and a theatre critic for The Scotsman newspaper, where she has championed the work of many (now) well-known playwrights during in the early stages of their careers. Sally is based in London and has worked as a script consultant for the BBC, UK Film Council and Royal Court Theatre, along with many other companies and individual writers in the UK and abroad. She received a scholarship to study on UCLA’s prestigious screenwriting course, and is two-times runner-up of the Allan Wright Award for journalistic excellence in the arts. Recent writing projects include a series of short films for BBC Ideas: https://www.bbc.com/ideas/playlists/life-in-2039
The Second Annual Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition is now accepting submissions. See details on our website: https://risktheatre.com/
Winner:
In Bloom by Gabriel Jason Dean of Brooklyn, NY
Gabriel Jason Dean is an American playwright whose plays include Terminus (Austin Critic’s Circle Award), Heartland (David Mark Cohen New Play Award), Qualities of Starlight (Broadway Blacklist), and The Transition of Doodle Pequeño (American Alliance for Theatre and Education Distinguished Play Award). He has penned books and lyrics for the musicals Mario and the Comet and Our New Town. His work has been produced/developed Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Flea, The Civilians, and Cherry Lane Theatre. He receive a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University and earned his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas Michener Center for Writers.
Runners Up:
Signature Photo by Michael Bucklin, Los Angeles, California
Michael Bucklin is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre. He attended UCLA’s Graduate Program in Screenwriting. His plays have been produced in both New York City and regional venues. He was a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill Conference of New Plays. He placed third in the Writer’s Digest Competition in Drama, and second in Beverly Hills Theatre Guild, Julie Harris Award Competition. He won first prize in playwriting at the Austin Film Festival. As a screenwriter, Michael received the Burns and Allen Comedy Writing Award, the Harmony Gold Award for Writing Excellence, and the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award.
Chrysalis by J. D. Volk, Los Angeles, California
J.D. Volk has been writing stage plays and screenplays for a dozen years and has had projects place in the ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition, Blue Ink Playwriting Competition, Campfire Theatre Festival, Traguna Reading Series, Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, and PAGE International Screenwriting Competition. He holds a B.A. in English with Highest Distinction from the University of Kansas and a J.D. with Honors from the University of Chicago. He lives in Los Angeles.
The Mysterious Ecstasy of the Lonely Business Traveler by Scott McCrea, Stamford, Connecticut
Scott McCrea lives in Stamford, Connecticut. He received his MFA in playwriting from Columbia University. His plays, short and long, have been presented throughout the U.S. Recently, his play Ripperland won the 2018 Maxim Mazumdar Competition and will premiere at Buffalo’s Alleyway Theatre in January, As an actor, he has appeared in New York off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, on television, on radio, and in commercials. He teaches acting and dramatic literature at Purchase College, State University of New York. He is also the author of The Case for Shakespeare: The End of the Authorship Question.
The Chechens by Phillip Christian Smith, NY, NY
Phillip Christian Smith is a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow, 2019 Finalist for The Dramatists Guild Fellowship, 2019 Semifinalist for The O’Neill (NPC) and PlayPenn. He has been a semifinalist for Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries (ASC), finalist for Trustus, playwright in residence of Exquisite Corpse and founding member of The Playwriting Collective. His work has been supported by Primary Stages (Cherry Lane) ESPA, Fresh Ground Pepper, the 53rd Street New York Public Library, Forge, Matthew Corozine Studio Theatre. MFA in acting Yale School of Drama, University of New Mexico BFA in acting; minor in English.
