Where do you go if you are a young playwright and want to have your play produced? The answer is the NY WinterFest and NY Summerfest’s. This year at the Summerfest Robert Williams gave 60 plays, 14 musicals, 50 shorts, 8 solo plays, 325 actors, 330 actresses and 130 directors, a chance to perform, be seen and reviewed. The festival ran from July to October with 130 productions making it to the stage. Each brought their own unique story, perspective, designs that inspired and captivated their audiences. Each was required to enlist the bravery and inventiveness of live theatre that didn’t rely on special effects, Hollywood stars or huge budgets.

The 2019 SummerFest has come to an end. Here are the nominees for the Best of the Fest.

Best Play or Musical $3000

Am I Blue? – by DeShawn Aaron Jenkins 

Lilith In Pisces – by Kayla Eisenberg 

Chasing Jack – by John Anastasi 

Humanity’s Child – by John Tierney 

Junior – Marshall Evans 

Borders – by Maera Daniel Hagage 

Aussie Song – by Frances Key 

Best Short $500

Honesty In An Apology – by Nathan David Smith 

Molotov Cocktail – Edward J. Fee 

Nonno In The Basement – by Robert LoManto 

Night Turns Day – by Michael David Johnson 

Best Director $500

Samantha Baptiste = Junior 

Peter Loewy = Chasing Jack 

DeShawn Aaron Jenkins = Am I Blue? 

Meghan Mulcahy and Reilly Johnson = ReallyReally 

Marlow Scott = Over The Rainbow 

Keena McDonald = Humanity’s Child 

Ellie Handel – Aussie Song 

Best Actor $500

Ernest Mingione = Nonno In The Basement 

Nathan Tolliver = Am I Blue?

Patrick Hamilton  = Chasing Jack 

J. Marshall Evans = Junior 

Tony White = The Sample 

Augustus Oicle = Really Really 

Nathan Tolliver = Am I Blue?

Best Actress $500

Johnnie Mae = Night Turns To Day 

Patricia Field = Junior 

Kelsea Lea Jones = Chasing Jack 

Virginia Logan = Lilith In Pisces

Arlene Bozich = Cry Wolf 

Gretchen Schneider = Bossa Nova And Bees 

Best Singer $500

Evan Crommett = The Fling LP

James Kivlen = Hill & Holler 

Flor Lopardo = Second Story Man

Amanda Tong & Matthew J Taylor = Daughter of Society 

Jordan Stam = Aussie Song 

The WinterFest is still accepting submissions!

Now calling all playwrights: Here’s a chance to have your play live on a New York City Stage! Submit your work to the Winterfest festival competition. Accepting plays and musicals of all genres between 5-90 minutes in length. New York Theater Festival has been a haven for playwrights for 16 seasons—Read below to find out why!

SUBMIT by clicking on this link

Meghan Mulcahy is an NYC-based actor and director. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Meghan went on to study at the Meisner Studio at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she expanded her artistry in Buenos Aries, Argentina and Barcelona, Spain. She received her BFA in Drama in 2017.  Really Really, first mounted in March at Gibney Dance Center, is her first directing project. An enthusiastic collaborator, Meghan strives to produce work that is accountable to the best of storytelling. In a time that is often chaotic and commercial, her work operates from a place of sensitivity, specificity, and clarity of purpose, no matter the scale.

Reilly Johnson is a Chicago-raised, New York-based actor and director who graduated with a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2017. At NYU, Reilly studied at the Meisner Studio where she received the 2017 award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting. She studied under incredible faculty (Vicki Hart, Gigi Buffington, Nate Flower, and Lucas Caleb Rooney), who helped her to hone her craft and developed a strong passion for theater, film, and television. Really Really is her first directing project.

Reilly Johnson and Meghan Mulcahy are recent graduates of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. As actors-turned-directors, this is their first directing project. They came together with the need to wrestle with theater that is risky, authentic, and immediate. When they encountered Really Really, nearly ten years after its writing, they were struck by its unabashed investigation of both sides of the “Me Too” era’s most vital conversation. It took the incendiary “he said/she said” conflict that we are seeing on national display and told it as a story between people whose motivations and actions never fit neatly into the predator/victim categories. Whatever bias you may walk in with, whoever you believe, this play will make you uncomfortable holding to that. In a time when so much seems black and white, with Really Really it has been our aim to stick our heads in the gray and stay there.

The challenge as actors has been to bring humanity to this group of people, and as directors to shape the story in the most truthful way possible, for all the characters.

Really Really: NY SummerFest, Hudson Theatre, 441 West 26th St. Sept. 21st @ 6:30

“I’m frightened, Richard. I dream that people are talking about me on television. Then I wake up and realize they are. Some of my colleagues have sent me articles that have appeared on the internet. At the end of those articles are comments by readers. The hatred. If I were a woman living in the Thirteenth Century, I’m sure they’d burn me. I’ve always wondered how human beings could hunt down and burn another human being. Now I know. They’re the same people.” Dragons in the Crease

Where are the lines drawn between the rights of one and the rights of many? In Dragons in the Crease, Jeffrey Lowry (Brennan Tracy), a student at a small junior college is asked to write down his questions by Evelyn Whitehead (Dara Lewis) his poetry professor. She asks him in the form of a letter due to his severe stutter and amount of questions. Jeffrey takes to the internet, but his father (Brian Rock) sees this as disabilities fighting for their rights and calls his friend (Andre DeSandies) at the New York Times. The story becomes the front page news.

“Right? Right? What do you know about what’s right? You live in a world where there’s no room for anyone except you. You talk about reaching out your hand, but you’ve never reached out your hand to anybody. You cast yourself as some sort of heroine but you’re really just sad woman who can’t see beyond her own needs.” Dragons in the Crease

As the past is brought out, Evelyn 10 years prior wrote love poems to her student and again acted inappropriately. In the end Evelyn loses her career as a teacher and doing what she loves. The title Dragons in the Crease, is drawn from an Emily Dickinson poem, points to the desire – but ultimate failure – to achieve love and human connection.

The cast does well, but I long to see seasoned professionals take this script to the next level. Mr. Tracy, manages to bring a truth to his character that is refreshing.

Mark Spina’s direction keeps the action on point and enhanced the storyline.

Joseph Vitale’s script is poignant, giving a voice to both the student with a disability and the longing to be set free and the teacher, who sees the world though warped glasses of her own choosing. There is a painful truth in these flawed individuals. I look forward to seeing another production of this and more work by this talented writer.

Dragons in the Crease is loosely based on real-life incident, and shows how social media turns us into instant heroes and villains.

Dragons in the Crease: NY Winterfest, Hudson Theatre, 441 West 26th St. Sept 21st at 9pm and Sept 22nd at 1:30pm.