Twenty-Second Season Showcases 16 Award-Winning Works
SANTA CRUZ — Santa Cruz County Actors’ Theatre presents the 22nd Annual 8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival, January 6 through February 5, 2017, at the Center Stage Theater in downtown Santa Cruz.
The annual ten-minute play festival is one of the most anticipated and popular events of the theatre season in Santa Cruz. Continuing their new format, Actors’ Theatre is offering twice the fun again this season, with sixteen award- winning plays from their national playwriting contest, showing in repertoire over the five-week festival.
Every summer Actors’ Theatre holds a national playwriting contest, judged by a select group of local writers and directors. The winning plays are then produced into full productions for the January Festival. The contest has become nationally renowned, with over 200 entrees this year from across the country and internationally.
“Over the years we have received plays from writers all over the world,” says Artistic Director and Festival founder Wilma Marcus Chandler. “The 8 Tens @ Eight has become known as the premiere ten-minute play festival on the West Coast. We have proudly kept in touch with many of our winning playwrights and have seen them go on to have plays produced in larger venues, knowing it all started for them here in Santa Cruz.”
This year’s sixteen award-winning plays will be presented as an “A” and “B” night, eight ten-minute plays on each night, in rotation. A special $40 ticket package is available to see any “A” and “B” showing throughout the run of the Festival. “Our 22nd season,” adds Chandler, “offers a wide variety of comedy and drama. They are plays with heart, conscience and humor.”
The 2017 Festival roster includes:
“A” Night
FLOWERS by Sheila Cowley • Directed by Kip Allert BOY TALK by Steve Koppman • Directed by Brian Spencer IRON MAN by Claudia Sternbach • Directed by Susan Forrest A LONG TIME COMING by Jody McColman • Directed by Jim Schultz TRUE by Richard Chin • Directed by Anita Natale SHAKESPEARE’S BOY by Brian Spencer • Directed by Andrew Ceglio THE THIRD PERSON by Dan Borengasser • Directed by MarNae Taylor THE NICE VIEW by Cynthia Veal Holm • Directed by Bill Peters
“B” Night
OUR LADY OF PALMYRA by Allston James • Directed by Noel Warwick & Suzanne Schrag THE PAIN INSIDE by Carlos Jerome • Directed by Robin Aronson COOLEY’S REEL by Madeline Puccioni • Directed by Gerry Gerringer NO TELLING by Janis Hashe • Directed by Wilma Chandler
MATCH PLAY by Seth Freeman • Directed by Sarah Albertson COUNTING DOGS LIKE SHEEP by Mary Caroline Rogers • Directed by Daria Troxell THE TRANSACTION by Kathryn Chetkovich • Directed by Nat Robinson GOD SPEED, APOLLO by Jody McColman • Directed by Marcus Cato
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Actors’ Theatre Presents
8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival
January 6 – February 6, 2017
Wednesday – Saturdays @ 8 PM • Saturday and Sunday Matinees @ 3 PM Please visit www.sccat.org for a full calendar of “A” and “B” night performances. Center Stage Theater, 1001 Center Street, Downtown Santa Cruz
Tickets: $25 General • $22 Senior/Student • $40 Package for any two-nights www.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006 for 2-night package special.
Founded in 1985, Actors’ Theatre has a long history of being a vital part of the greater Santa Cruz area’s theatre community, known for its productions of classical, contemporary and new plays. Today, Actors’ Theatre is a production company producing the 8 Tens @ Eight Festival – loved not only by the public, but also by the theatre community as well.
Actors’ Theatre Producer/President: Bonnie Ronzio. Artistic Director: Wilma Marcus Chandler. www.sccat.org.
