Theatre Odyssey’s Ten-Minute Play Festival returns

It’s nine plays for $25. You can’t do much better than that.

Theatre Odyssey’s Ten-Minute Play Festival is set for this weekend. Besides offering audiences a chance to see a lot of short plays by some of the area’s best playwrights, staged by some of the area’s best actors and directors, the festival is a competition. A panel of theater experts makes its selections for the best play and the runner-up, and this year audience members get to vote for the ones they like best, too.

Here are this year’s plays.

▪  “Always” by Stephen Cooper. Director: Louise Stinespring. Actors: Tom Aposporos, Andrea Dovner.

▪  “The Best Ten Minutes Ever” by Dylan Jones, Director: Sara Logan. Actors: Philip Troyer, Johana Davila, Sandra Musicante.

▪  “A Big Wave” by Connie Schindewolf. Director: Bob Trisolini. Actors: Don Walker, Jenny Aldrich Walker.

▪  “The Call” by Frank Motz. Director: Bob Trisolini. Actors: Lilian Moore, Tony Boothby, Courtney Hawk.

▪  “I’m Dead When I Say I’m Dead” by Ron Pantello. Director: Louise Stinespring. Actors: Mitcheal Pearl, Kathryn Chesley.

▪  “Kennedy’s Acolytes” by Jack Gilhooley. Director: Sara Logan. Actors: Nicole Cunningham, Sally Fint, Johana Davila.

▪  “Secret’s Out” by Greg Burdick. Director: Daniel Greene. Actors: Paul Mullen, Mitcheal Pearl, Nicole Cunningham, Olivia Yagy.

▪  “Wheelchair Chicken” by J. Clark. Director: Daniel Greene. Actors: Neil Levine, David Meyersberg, Jenny Aldrich Walker.

Besides the eight plays in competition, the festival includes a ninth play, the winner of Theatre Odyssey’s 2017 Student Ten-Minute Play Festival. “Amazing Grace” by Luke Valadie of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, is directed by Preston Boyd with a cast yet to be announced.

Details: May 4-7, FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $25. Students $5 at the door. 941-799-7224, theatreodyssey.org.

This story was originally published May 3, 2017 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Theatre Odyssey’s Ten-Minute Play Festival returns."