Notice: The 2020 Festival has been postponed due to Covid-19 and re-scheduled for May 13,14, 15 2021
Playbill Cast
We need:
Females 8 ages 3- 60ish 3-45ish 2-25-30ish
Males 10 ages 3-60ish 3-50ish 4-25-40ish
Total cast 18
Theatre for Young Audiences
Gilda - We need:
Females 10 ages- 10-18ish
Males 10 ages- 10-18ish
Cast 15- 20
This Year's Playwrights
Playwright:
Jim began his comedy career in 1973 by joining a popular New York comedy trio, Divided We Stand regulars at the Improvisation Cafe and other New York Clubs (The Bitter End, Catch A Rising Star, The Bottom Line) but spent most of their time touring colleges and other nightclubs. The trio performed at hundreds of colleges and Europe appearing with Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons, The Beach Boys, The Commodores, Jimmy Buffet, The Righteous Brothers, Bill Withers, War, Shanana, and The Temptations to name a few. In 1980 Jim had the opportunity to write for television in Los Angeles. He made the move with his actress wife Annie Gagen to Hollywood where he wrote and produced popular television. He co-created and executive produced The Suite Life of Zack and Cody for the Disney Channel which later became The Suite Life on Deck. The “Zack and Cody” franchise is about to enter its seventh record breaking season. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody have brought Jim two Emmy nominations. His play, “Triple Exposure,” at the Wisdom Bridge Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 1993 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work.
Playwright:
Renée Baillargeon is an active member of Canadian Actors Equity and resides permanently in St. Catharines Ontario. Renée has been the Director of Playwrights Niagara since 2012 and has written over 20 plays. She is a regular contributor to the international online magazine theatreartlife and is presently an adjunct professor for the Centre of Arts and Culture at Brock University, Canada. During the 19 years prior to that she was a theatre director at Niagara University New York. In 2018 Her one act play “Choices” was part of VUTC’s one act festival and she is very happy to share it with us again tonight. The final scene of Tonight’s play “The Book Club Thief” was part of the “Stage IT” festival in Bonita Springs Florida but tonight is the world premiere of the complete one act play.
Playwright:
Cary resides in San Francisco USA. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, and a four-time contributor to Applause Books’ Best American Short Plays series (Small Things; House of the Holy Moment; Come Again, Another Day; Irish Stew). Cary Pepper has had work presented throughout the United States and internationally. Among his full-length plays, How It Works won the 2012 Ashland New Plays Festival and Cufflinked was a semifinalist for the 2014 festival. Among his one-act plays, The Walrus Said won the Religious Arts Guild Playwriting Competition; Small Things won the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival 2006 One Act Play Contest; Party Favors won the 2016 Goshen Peace Play Contest. Most recently How’s Bruno? marked Cary’s second appearance in the LaBute New Theater Festival, Death Does Larry became his second production by Drip Action Theatre Trail in their Arundel Festival (UK) presentation, and Crossed was named a winner in Drury University’s 2019 One-Act Play Competition.
Playwright:
Adam Szudrich resides in Australia. He is a ‘Bartie’ award-winning writer whose work has been performed Off-Broadway, Off-West End & off in the middle of nowhere. His plays have been selected for 93 international festivals and received 40 awards. His new play, Rosa & Leo, recently won Best International Play @ The International Festival of Ten-Minute Plays & 6 awards at Launch 2020
Playwright:
Rich Orloff lives in New York State. He is the author of 18 full-length plays, mostly comedies and mostly award-winning. His comedy ROMANTIC FOOLS has had over 100 productions on four continents, including two productions in Madrid, where they’re apparently no better at romance than we are. Rich’s 80 short plays have received over 2000 productions on six continents (and a staged reading in Antarctica).
Playwright:
A Fredericton native, John graduated from UNB with a degree in biology and immediately made the natural career leap to business administration, accounting and finance. For the last 20 years, he has followed his passion of writing for theatre. His plays, mostly comedies, involve ordinary people who find themselves in not-so-ordinary situations. His first professional production, Between Friends, was staged in Port Dover in 2008. Since then, he has had a number of plays produced mostly in Canada, but also the US. He is a member of the Playwright’s Guild of Canada and the Playwright Atlantic Resource Center (PARC).
Playwright:
Rod is an award-winning journalist and author of three books, now retired. Two are humour books and the last being a well-received book of poetry. Rod took to writing plays about four years ago and has been pursuing this full-time, or whenever he isn’t sleeping or tending to his garden! Rod was the main Foley artist on ‘Ace Galaksi: Space Dick at Large’ in the Festival’s first year and was Rod’s foray into live theatre. Rod’s youngest sister and parents were heavily involved in ‘theatre’ and the performing arts and this is an area he always wanted to pursue, now mainly script writing! Gilda The Princess is his first script to be accepted and performed live on stage. Thanks also to Ole Madsen, the author of the book Gilda, which Rod turned into a play with full permission.
This Year's Plays
It’s a Bird; it’s a Plane
Carl and Ida are Hollywood actors and have known each other for many years. They meet at a Subway Sandwich shop on Hollywood Boulevard once
Room for Cream
The further adventures of Carl and Ida in the Subway Sandwich shop on Hollywood Boulevard where they meet once a week. Carl shows up late,
The book club thief
It is book club night and everyone is supposed to read “The Book Thief”. However, only three of the married wives can make it. It
Mark My Worms
Mason has been cast in a newly-discovered, never-before-seen play by the world-class absurdist LaSalle Montclare. But the play must be performed exactly as written. And
Rosa and Leo
Five decades after secretly falling in love in a Nazi concentration camp, Rosa and Leo rediscover each other on opposite sides of the world. Characters
Gilda
Nature-lover, young and beautiful, but poor, Gilda, who is watched over by Forest Elves, is given the chance to live like a Princess, which she accepts. Taken in by the King and Queen, it’s the King’s evil brother’s son, Denny, who has eyes for Gilda and kidnaps her. Thanks to the Forest Elves and visiting Prince, Poul, will Gilda be rescued in time and returned to her life in the palace?
Mourning Glory
Mourning Glory by Rich Orloff Explores the question: What is the appropriate waiting period before a guy can hit on his dead friend’s spouse? And
The Third Life of Eddie Mann
Eddie Mann’s first life was as a teacher, which he loved. He retired after 31 years and decided to become a financial advisor, which he hated. That