10-Minute Play Contest 2011

Grand Prize Winner

Lynne McMahon has received a Guggenheim Foundation Grant, an Ingram Merrill Award, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her play Half Irish was a finalist the Heideman Award (Actors Theatre of Louisville); The Bird Sanctuary was a finalist for the Tennessee Williams One-Act Play Competition. McMahon’s play The Party was produced by the Manhattan Theatre Source Estrogenius Festival October, 2006. The Bird Sanctuary received staged readings in both Chicago and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and had a full production at the Side Project, Chicago, April-May, 2009, under the direction of Adam Webster.

People’s Choice Winner

Lawrence Kessenich is a playwright, poet, essayist, fiction writer, and former book editor and amateur actor. He has written a dozen 10-minute plays, three of which have been finalists for the Boston Theatre Marathon. Ronnie’s Charger is his first play to be produced. He has also written a one-man play, The Voyage In, based on Carl Jung’s autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, and another full-length play, Anne Frank Lives!, for which he is seeking production venues. He studied theatre at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and acted in amateur productions in Wisconsin and Massachusetts. His poetry has been widely published, and in 2010 he was awarded the Strokestown International Poetry Prize for his poem “Angelus.” He has published a number of essays, reading “In My Father’s Tears” on NPR’s This I Believe in December 2010, after it was published in an anthology. He resides in the Boston suburb of Watertown.

Update (May 21, 2011): We have our winners!

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Update (April 7, 2011): We received 92 entries that included several from the Four Corners region, as well as plays from Europe, Canada and New Zealand. Staged readings of the finalists will take place on Sunday, May 15 at 6 pm in the Durango Arts Center theater. At that time, the grand prize winner and the people’s choice award will be also determined.

The Five Finalists (in alphabetical order):
BELONGING – by Laurence Klavan (New York, NY)
CHECKMATE, SOULMATE – by Mad Hester (Brooklyn, NY)
EMBODIED BEINGS – by Jeff Schwamberger (La Honda, CA)
GRIEF – by Lynne McMahon (Chicago, IL)
RONNIE’S CHARGER – by Lawrence Kessenich (Watertown, MA)

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The Durango Arts Center is pleased to sponsor its first 10-Minute Play Contest in 2011, which will culminate in a full production during the annual Durango Showcase of the Arts in September.

10-minute plays were officially introduced by the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1977, when the genre was promoted as part of the Humana Festival of new American Plays. Often referred to as the “haiku of the American stage,” as well as “a streak of theatrical lightning,” 10-minute plays have become an engaging and popular genre for today’s audiences and playwrights.

2011 Schedule of Events

February 18, 2011 – Deadline for submissions (Entries must be postmarked on or before February 18).

May 2011 – The top entries of the 2010 contest will be presented as staged readings at The Durango Arts Center in Durango, CO. The Judges will select the top five entries and the winner of the Grand Prize Award ($500). Audience members will select their favorite 10-Minute Play for an award of $50.

September 2011 – The Grand Prize winning play and selected others will be performed at the Durango Arts Center as part of the Durango Showcase of the Arts.

Download the prospectus here. For more information, email TenMinutePlayDirector@gmail.com.

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