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MCC Daily Tribune

The Sixth Act and 2026-2027

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The Sixth Act is thrilled to announce its 2026-2027 co-curricular offerings! Please see below, add any/all events to your curriculum/calendar, and contact Maria Brandt (mbrandt@monroecc.edu) with any questions.

Bake-Off/24-Hour Play

Saturday, October 3, 2026, 7 p.m.
Forum, R. Thomas Flynn Campus Center
Free and Open to the Public

MCC students will meet in The Forum at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 2, 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.

Visiting Playwright, Emily Kaczmarek

  • Tuesday, March 23, 2027, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., Black Box Theater, Reading and Conversation
  • Wednesday, March 24, 2027, 10 a.m. to 10:50 a.m., Black Box Theater, Interdisciplinary Theatre Workshop
  • Wednesday, March 24, 2027, 12 p.m. to 12:50 p.m., 8-200, Playwriting Workshop
    All Events Free and Open to the Public

Emily Kaczmarek is a writer for theatre, TV, and film. Her work has been produced and developed at theatres across the country, including The 5th Avenue Theatre, Detroit Public Theatre, American Conservatory Theater, WP Theater, and others. Her play SOFT TARGET was recently published in the Winter ‘26 issue of American Theatre magazine. Emily is the bookwriter of the original musicals AFTERWORDS and AFLOAT (music & lyrics by Zoe Sarnak) and is the recipient of a Jonathan Larson Award. Her TV credits include MONSTERLAND and THE STAIRCASE (nominated for a Writers Guild Award), among others, and she is currently serving as Executive Producer on a Netflix show, as well as creating her own show for FX. Emily is a graduate of the WGA Showrunner Training Program and is represented by WME and Curate Management. 

Twentieth Annual Sixth Act Student Playwriting Competition

Thursday, May 6, 2027, 7 p.m., Black Box Theater
Free and Open to the Public

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.

2026-2027 Special Projects

The Sixth Act will develop curriculum-support materials and events for VaPA’s 2026-2027 season and for theatre productions in the Rochester community 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.

Maria Brandt
The Sixth Act
06/17/2026