Short Play Festival Returns

Presented by 8 Tens @ 8 Featuring 16 Award-Winning Works • Jan. 5 — Feb. 4

Santa Cruz County Actors’ Theatre presents the 23rd Annual 8 Tens @ Eight Short Play Festival, January 5 through February 4, 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 international play-writing contest, showing in repertoire over the five-week festival.

Every summer Actors’ Theatre holds an international 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.

“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 $45 two-night package is available to see any “A” and “B” night showing throughout the run of the Festival. “Our 23rd season,” adds Chandler, “offers a wide variety of comedy and drama. They are plays with heart, conscience, and humor.”

The 2018 Festival’s “A” Night roster: • Esther Williams Explained by Eileen Valentino Flaxman. Directed by Peter Gelblum • Homecoming by Jeffrey Strausser. Directed by Gail Borkowski • After The Darkness by Joe Starzyk. Directed by Suzanne Schrag & Noel Warwick • M And The Water Man by Hannah Vaughn. Directed by Gerry Gerringer • While Waiting For The Plane by Steve Capasso.

Directed by Davis Banta • The Exchange by Greg Aktins. Directed by Don Williams • Anonymous Donor by Mark Nutter. Directed by Helene Jara • Lost & Found by Dennis Porter. Directed by Anita Natale

The Festival’s “B” Night roster: • The New Client by Paul Donnelly. Directed by April Bennet • Driving Lesson by Steve “Spike” Wong. Directed by Nat Robinson • Pink Roses And Apple Pie by Lindsey Esplin. Directed by Sarah Albertson • Phone Sets by Karen Schamberg & Wilma Chandler. Directed by Andrew Stewart • High Grass by Irene Ziegler. Directed by Daria Troxell • Dragon Skin by Steve “Spike” Wong. Directed by Don Grube • Sky Trail, Wilder by Allston James. Directed by Bill Peters • Michelangelo’s Jesus by Paola Bruni. Directed by Jim Schultz.

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Actors’ Theatre presents 8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival January 5 – February 4, 2018. Wednesday – Saturdays @ 8 PM | Saturday and Sunday Matinees @ 3 PM. Center Stage Theater, 1001 Center Street, Downtown Santa Cruz

Tickets: $26 General | $23 Senior/Student | $45 Two-Night Package for the 8 Tens, www.brownpapertickets.com or 800-838-3006 or visit www.sccat.org Producer/President: Bonnie Ronzio. Artistic Director: Wilma Marcus Chandler.