Anne Washburn is a New York-based playwright. Washburn’s plays include 10 out of 12, Antlia Pnuematica, The Buring Cauldron of Fiery Fire, A Devil at Noon, Apparition, The Community Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, Little Bunny Foo Foo, The Internationalist, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Shipwreck, The Small, and transadaptations of Euripides’ Orestes and Iphigenia in Aulis. Her work has been produced nationally and internationally and has premiered with 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, the Almeida, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Fogler, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Two River Theater Company, Vineyard Theater, and Woolly Mammoth. Honors include a Guggenheim, a Whiting, an Alpert Award, a PEN/Laura Pels award for artist in mid-career, a NYFA Fellowship, a Time Warner Fellowship, two-time finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo.
This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have their play submitted to a nationwide competition. Scripts will be accepted for consideration beginning in September.
The Sixth Act will continue to develop curriculum-support materials for both VaPA’s and Geva’s 2025-2026 season in an effort to encourage faculty across MCC to teach these plays in their individual courses and to enrich this process for all involved.
The Sixth Act also will continue to develop Drama on Demand, now as a Video Library. This popular program now features web-based, filmed versions of VaPA students performing scenes from published plays so these scenes can be used as co-curricular tools across campus.
MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7 PM on a Friday evening to begin the process of creating a series of short plays from nothing. 24 hours later, those plays will be ready for an audience. Come laugh with us, cry with us, and help us celebrate the magic of co-curricular, interdisciplinary collaboration at its most immediate.
Improvisation and play are key to unlocking the agency, courage, and joy of creating. This workshop invites all MCC students interested in their own creative processes to play with us. W’'ll help you free the possibilities already inside you, giving you tools to approach the world with renewed wonder. Facilitator Mike Whistler served 15 years as the Coordinator for Theatre Arts at Montgomery County Community College, where he taught Improvisation, Acting Shakespeare, and Commedia dell’Arte. Mike worked with artists and educators at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, training with “Shakespeare Works When Shakespeare Plays.” He then served as the founding Managing Director of the Globe’s American Center on Teaching Shakespeare at University of CA, Davis.
Seayoung Yim is a playwright and educator from Seattle. Her play, Jar of Fat, published by Yale University Press, was the 2022 winner of the Yale Drama Series Prize. Honors include: Woolly Mammoth X Black List Playwriting Commission, Powers Playwriting Fellowship - Old Globe, 2023 Kilroys Web, Hedgebrook residency, Sewanee Writers’ Conference fellowship, Stephen Sondheim Graduate fellowship, finalist - 2024 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award, second place - Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award (KCACTF). Her work has been supported by Ma-Yi Writer’s Lab, Clubbed Thumb, Annex Theater, Cafe Nordo, and others. MFA: Brown University. Please visit Seayoung Yim's website (www.seayoungyim.com) .
This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have his/her play submitted to a nationwide competition. Scripts are accepted for consideration beginning in September.
The Sixth Act will continue to develop curriculum-support materials for both VaPA’s and Geva’s 2024-2025 season in an effort to encourage faculty across MCC to teach these plays in their individual courses and to enrich this process for all involved.
The Sixth Act also will continue to develop Drama on Demand, now as a Video Library. This popular program now features web-based, filmed versions of VaPA students performing scenes from published plays so these scenes can be used as co-curricular tools across campus.
MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7 PM on a Friday evening to begin the process of creating a series of short plays from nothing. 24 hours later, those plays will be ready for an audience. Come laugh with us, cry with us, and help us celebrate the magic of co-curricular, interdisciplinary collaboration at its most immediate.
Garrett Zuercher (he/him) is a profoundly Deaf theater and film artist and award-winning playwright who holds an MFA from Hunter College, class of 2022. Based in New York City, he serves as the founding artistic director of Deaf Broadway, for which he is currently producing an all-Deaf, all-ASL staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Company at Lincoln Center in summer of 2023, in which he will also star. Recently, he was awarded a residency commission from The Shed to create an original narrative piece about the lives and work of Deaf artists, which will be produced on the main stage in the summer of 2024. His most recent short film, “Flirting (With Possibilities),” continues to garner honors at film festivals around the world. Dedicated to bringing authentic Deaf voices to the mainstream, he continues to advocate for awareness and representation within the theatre and film industries. For more, please visit Garrett Zuercher's website (wwww.garettzuercher.com).
This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have his/her play submitted to a nationwide competition. Scripts are accepted for consideration beginning in September.
The Sixth Act will continue to develop curriculum-support materials for both VaPA’s and Geva’s 2023-2024 season in an effort to encourage faculty across MCC to teach these plays in their individual courses and to enrich this process for all involved.
The Sixth Act also will continue to develop Drama on Demand, now as a Video Library. This popular program now features web-based, filmed versions of VaPA students performing scenes from published plays so these scenes can be used as co-curricular tools across campus.
MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7 PM on Friday, October 20, to begin the process of creating a series of short plays from nothing. 24 hours later, those plays will be ready for an audience. Come laugh with us, cry with us, and help us celebrate the magic of co-curricular, interdisciplinary collaboration at its most immediate.
Harrison David Rivers is an award-winning playwright, librettist and television writer based in St. Paul, Minnesota. His plays include The Bandaged Place (Roundabout, New York Stage & Film), We Are Continuous (Geva Theatre Center, Williamstown Theatre Center), This Bitter Earth (Seattle Public, TheatreWorks Hartford, InterAct, The Road, Richmond Triangle Players, Theater Alliance, About Face, Penumbra, New Conservatory Theatre Center), Where Storms Are Born (Williamstown Theatre Festival), When Last We Flew (Out Front, Real Live Arts, TheatreLAB, Diversionary, NYFringe), and the musicals Five Points with Douglas Lyons and Ethan Pakchar, We Shall Someday with Ted Shen, and I Put a Spell on You with Nubya Garcia. His television credits include One of Us Is Lying (Peacock) and The Nevers (HBO). Harrison is a recipient of McKnight, Jerome and Van Lier Fellowships, residencies with the Bogliasco Foundation, Siena Art Institute, the Hermitage and Duke University, and commissions from Roundabout, Transport Group, Penumbra, TheatreWorks Hartford, Geva Theatre Center and La Jolla, among others. He sits on the Board of Directors of The Movement Theatre Company and the Playwrights’ Center.
This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have his/her play submitted to a nationwide competition. Scripts are accepted for consideration beginning in September.
The Sixth Act will continue to develop curriculum-support materials for both VaPA’s and Geva’s 2022-2023 season in an effort to encourage faculty across MCC to teach these plays in their individual courses and to enrich this process for all involved.
The Sixth Act also will continue to develop Drama on Demand, now as a Video Library. This popular program now features web-based, filmed versions of VaPA students performing scenes from published plays so these scenes can be used as co-curricular tools across campus.
MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7 PM on Friday, October 15, to begin the process of creating a series of short plays from nothing. 24 hours later, those plays will be ready for an audience. Come laugh with us, cry with us, and help us celebrate the magic of co-curricular, interdisciplinary collaboration at its most immediate.
Donna Hoke’s work has been seen in 47 states and on five continents. Plays include Brilliant Works of Art (Kilroys List), Elevator Girl (O’Neill, Princess Grace, and Austin Film Festival finalist), Safe (winner of the Todd McNerney, Naatak, and Great Gay Play and Musical Contests), and Teach (Gulfshore New Works winner). She has been nominated for the Primus, Blackburn, and Laura Pels prizes, and is a three-time winner of the Emanuel Fried Award for Outstanding New Play (Seeds, Sons & Lovers, Once in My Lifetime). She has also received an Individual Artist Award from the New York State Council on the Arts to develop Hearts of Stone, and, in its final three years, Artvoice named her Buffalo's Best Writer—the only woman to ever receive the designation. Donna served the Dramatists Guild Council since 2012, is an ensemble playwright at Road Less Traveled Productions, blogger, moderator of the 13,000+-member Official Playwrights of Facebook, New York Times-published crossword puzzle constructor; children's and trivia book author; and founder/co-curator of BUA Takes 10: GLBT Short Stories. Speaking engagements include Citywrights, Kenyon Playwrights Conference, the Dramatists Guild National Conference, Chicago Dramatists, the Austin Film Festival, and a live Dramatists Guild webinar. Her commentary has been seen on #2amt, howlround, The Dramatist, the Official Playwrights of Facebook, Workshopping the New Play (Applause, 2017), and at Donna Hoke's website (donnahoke.com).
This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have his/her play submitted to a nationwide competition. Scripts will be accepted for consideration beginning in September.
The Sixth Act will continue to develop curriculum-support materials and post-production talk-backs for both VaPA’s and Geva’s 2019-2020 season in an effort to encourage faculty across MCC to teach these plays in their individual courses and to enrich this process for all involved.
The Sixth Act also will continue to develop Drama on Demand, now as a Video Library. This popular program now features web-based, filmed versions of VaPA students performing scenes from published plays so these scenes can be used as co-curricular tools across campus.
Through The Sixth Act, Daystar/Rosalie Jones will introduce viewers to the storytelling potentials of the Anishinaabe Medicine Wheel, also called the Medicine Circle, or the Circle of Life. The Wheel embodies a depth of teachings from the Anishinaabe (or Ojibwe) people of North America. In its basic elements, this symbol is used as a teaching tool through which to embody the cycles of life, the elements of nature, and our responsibilities to self and the world around us.
MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7 PM on Friday, October 9, to begin the process of creating a series of short plays from nothing. 24 hours later, those plays will be ready for an audience. Come laugh with us, cry with us, and help us celebrate the magic of co-curricular, interdisciplinary collaboration at its most immediate.
Stephanie Leary's plays include An Apple a Day, A Polished Slavery, Unleavened, Relay, and Spinach: The Often Overlooked and Usually Underappreciated Nutritional Value of Like at First Sight. Stephanie's work has been produced and/or developed by Syracuse Stage, the Sankofa Theatre Festival, and the International Performing Arts for Youth. Her play, Commanding Space: The Rise of Annie Easley and the Centaur Rocket, was recently awarded a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science and Technology Project. Stephanie was born and raised in Rochester, New York, where she still lives. She is a graduate of Monroe Community College and SUNY Brockport and obtained her M.F.A. in playwriting from Goddard College.
Hilary Bettis is a critically-acclaimed playwright whose work has been developed and produced all over the country, including Roundabout Theatre, New Georges, The Sol Project, Miami New Drama, Studio Theatre, Alley Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, La Jolla Playhouse, amongst others. In television Bettis won the 2019 Writer’s Guild of America Award for her work on the Emmy Award winning FX series “The Americans.” She wrote on the Hulu miniseries, “The Dropout,” and Amazon’s “Rodeo Queens.” She’s an alumni of the Sundance Institute Episodic TV Lab, and is developing projects for AMC, Hulu, and PatMa. She’s a graduate of The Juilliard School.
This competition encourages MCC students to write plays for an audience, to provide MCC students a competitive venue for their scripts, to offer winning playwrights the opportunity to see their scripts performed as staged readings with an eye towards future play development, and to offer VaPA students the opportunity to participate in the new-play-development process. Three winning playwrights receive cash prizes. One winning playwright also will have his/her play submitted to a nationwide competition. Scripts will be accepted for consideration beginning in September.
The Sixth Act will continue to develop curriculum-support materials and post-production talk- backs for both VaPA’s and Geva’s 2019-2020 season in an effort to encourage faculty across MCC to teach these plays in their individual courses and to enrich this process for all involved.
The Sixth Act also will continue to develop Drama on Demand, now as a Video Library. This popular program now features web-based, filmed versions of VaPA students performing scenes from published plays so these scenes can be used as co-curricular tools across campus.