7th Annual Emerging Playwright Competition
The Emerging Playwright Competition attracts talented playwrights from a 100-mile radius of the Phillips’ Mill Community Association. The goal of the competition is to encourage new work and bring it to the stage. Every year, six short plays are selected by a jury to be read on stage, with talkbacks with the audience following the readings.
2024 Winning Plays
“THREE VISITS”
by Lisa DeAngelis | Buckingham, PA
“SISTER WIVES”
by Alexis Telyczka | Newark, NJ
“IN PURSUIT OF PRUDENCE”
by Sam Affoumado | New York, NY
“THE STAR ROAD”
by Barbara Blatner | New York, NY
“IN PASSING”
by Vita Morales | Oxford, NJ
“CUPCAKES”
by Jennifer O’Grady | Pelham, NY
Watch The Readings
Lisa DeAngelis
“Three Visits”
Lisa DeAngelis is an award-winning writer who has had success in multiple writing platforms. Whether for print, the stage, or the big or small screen, Lisa manages to invent characters, incorporate humor, and create stories that are engaging, rife with conflict, and satisfying in their resolution. Her first work of historical fiction, Angels Unaware, was published in 2021 by Regal House Publishing. Her newspaper column, It’s a Living with Lisa, about people who are exploring a reinvention of their work life and the means by which they were able to achieve their success, appears weekly in The Bucks County Herald. Earlier this year, she became a Courage to Write Grantee of The de Groot Foundation to support her in completing her historical novel, Granny Panties, about three 70-year-old women who save a man from drowning on Lake Nockamixon and live to regret it. — www.lisadeangeliswriter.com
Alexis Telyczka
“Sister Wives”
Alexis Telyczka is an artist and writer based in Somerset and Newark, NJ. She is a graduate student in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism at The New School, an alumna of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a proud member of the New Jersey Play Lab's Storyteller Studio. Her creative projects often incorporate the themes of legacy, familial relationships, gender, and femininity. She is easily drawn to anything that is pink, and she is excited for every chance she gets to create.
Sam Affoumado
“IN PURSUIT OF PRUDENCE”
Sam Affoumado (playwright/director) has produced and directed many of his plays in and around NYC: “Doctor Truth,” for the All-Out Arts Fresh Fruit Festival (2024), “The Finalist,” for the Emerging Artists Theater—New Work Series, ‘The Flogsta Scream,” for the International Human Rights Arts Festival at The Wild Project, and “Peanut Butter Patty,” (semi-finalist) in the 37th Annual Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival. His play “Sunset Living” was produced by Stage it! International Ten-Minute Play Festival (2022) at the Bonita Springs Arts Center, Florida. “One-Way Ticket” was presented at the William Inge Theatre Festival Playwrights’ Lab. His plays have been produced in New York, North Carolina, Florida and Washington, D.C. — www.samaffoumado.com
Barbara Blatner
“THE STAR ROAD”
Barbara Blatner’s verse play “No Star Shines Sharper,” published by Baker’s Plays, was aired repeatedly on Christmas Eve on NPR stations and acquired by New York’s Museum of TV and Radio. The award-winning “Years of Sky’ was produced by Scripts Up! at 59E59 Theatres and read at the Great Plains Theatre Conference. “Jane, Queen’s Foole” was part of Centenary Stage’s 2023 Women Playwrights Series. “Hamlet Leaves England” appeared on the Pittsburgh New Works Mainstage. “Two Sisters” was read in the 2022 Inge Play Festival’s New Play Lab, “Secret Places” was produced by New Circle Theatre Company, and “Spell,” a riff-in-verse on Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” was produced in Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival and as an audio play by Open Door Playhouse. “Light” was read at the 2020 ATHE Conference.
Vita Morales
“IN PASSING”
Vita Patrick Morales has a BA in Italian from Rutgers University, an MA in Theater and Film from Hunter College and an MS in education from Fordham University.
She is the author of over 20 short and full-length plays, including “Francis of Assisi,” “The Diagonal Trilogy” “Esmeralda and the “Pacific Vortex,” “The Havana Orthodoxy,” “Vitiligo,” “Loretta the Yodeling Cowgirl” and “The Golden Thunderbolts.” She is a member of the Dramatist Guild, ICWP and Honor Roll!.
Jennifer O’Grady
“Cupcakes”
Jennifer O’Grady is a playwright and poet whose plays have been produced throughout the U.S. and internationally. She was a 2023 Winner of the Emerging Playwright Competition (for “We Were Happy”) and is the recipient of the Rising Artists Playwriting Award, 1st Place Henley Rose Award and other prizes. She is a finalist for the Gary Garrison Playwriting Award, Waterworks Festival, Pandora’s Box, Moxie Incubator and others, as well as a semifinalist for the Princess Grace/New Dramatists Fellowship and a two-time semifinalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Her plays have been presented by The Irish Rep, City Theatre Miami, 6th Street Playhouse, The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, Little Fish Theatre, Short + Sweet, Lakeshore Players, Heartland Theatre Co., The Bechdel Group, Round the Bend Theatre and many others including colleges and schools around the U.S. Her plays are published in multiple editions of the annual Best Ten-Minute Plays and Best Women’s Stage Monologues, among other anthologies. She is also the author of the poetry books White (Midlist First Series Award) and Exclusions & Limitations (MadHat Press). Her poems appear in numerous places, including Harpers, The New Republic, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, The Writers Almanac, Poetry Daily and BBC Radio 4, and have garnered awards and Pushcart Prize nominations. She grew up in New York City and holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and a BA from Vassar and lives with her family in Pelham, NY. — www.jenniferogrady.net
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