2008 WINNERS

FIRST PLACE:
Another Dude’s Slingbacks: A Fairy Tale
      in Two Acts by Andrew Black

SECOND PLACE:
Letter from a Soldier: My Name is Aslam
      by Debra Victoroff

THIRD PLACE:
Aporia by Paul David Young

FINALIST:
Kick flip by Nicole Gabriella Scipione
Redemption: A Collision of History and
      Memory in Four Breaths
      by Venus Opal Reese
Inside the Coma of Wayne Morse
      by Steve Lyons

HONORABLE MENTION:
90 Miles of Separation
      by Tony Macy-Perez
Alabama Baggage by Buddy Farmer
Catching Carp by Richard Nannariello
Gaming on Sacred Ground
      by Suzanne Bailie
Gentlefucknation by Johnmichael Rossi
      Higher Concepts by Joan Dunayer
Katrina’s Path by Rob Florence 
Michael's Race by Linda Goldberg 
Mystery of the White Slave
      by William Rumbler
Orbit by Brie Wittman
Race Relations by Carrie Printz
Sangre de un Angel
      by Roxanne Schroeder-Arce
Split Ends by Venus Opal Reese
The Far End of the Earth
​      by Keith McGregor
Through the Tulips by Naomi Tessler

PLAY LOG LINES / SYNOPSES:
FIRST PLACE:
Another Dude’s Slingbacks: A Fairy Tale in Two Acts 
                       by Andrew Black.
When a fairy godmother grants a gay classmate's vengeful wish, "Killer" Kerrigan, the homophobic quarterback of the Lincoln High football team, is magically transformed into a homosexual.  The football star learns what life is like on the other side of the pom-poms, and the gay student discovers that you better be careful what you wish for.

2008 SECOND PLACE:
Letter from a Soldier: My Name is Aslam by Debra Victoroff.
A soldier writes to his girlfriend and tells her about an Iraqi family he got to know there.  Being in Iraq and meeting this family and the villagers at the market has changed him.  In doing so, he confronts his own humanity and that of the citizenry of Iraq. 

THIRD PLACE:
Aporia by Paul David Young.
The play shows the atrocities of war on a personal level, a disassociated media, and the duality of American culture with that of other cultures.   The play also shows the sameness of the human needs of all people.

FINALIST:
Kick flip by Nicole Gabriella Scipione.
A complex story of a young man on a quest to find himself.  He gets into drugs, is arrested for possession of drugs, becomes homeless and meets up with a girl from the streets who he falls in love with.  Through the ups and downs of life, he winds up back at the doorstep of the house he grew up in and heals old wounds with his father.

FINALIST:
Redemption: A Collision of History and Memory in Four Breaths
                       by Venus Opal Reese.
The play captures the pinnacle and defining moments which shape the course and content of a character’s existence.These moments address “what part do I play in my own degradation, as an individual and within a society, and what needs to happen to create a new possibility, more seductive than my past, which calls me into the future?” 
 
FINALIST:
Inside the Coma of Wayne Morse by Steve Lyons.
Wayne Morse is in a coma in a hospital room with a woman who has just given birth to a premature baby.  The baby's essence is able to communi-cate with Wayne, even though he is in a coma.  Throughout the play Morse and the baby struggle with whether life is worth living as Waye is thrown back to his experiences of trying to fight against the Gulf War.  The baby decides that life is worth living and makes the decision to live.

UPDATES FOR 2008 WINNERS

Another Dude's Slingbacks: A Fairy Tale in Two Acts by Andrew Black was given a full production by 13th Street Repertory in NYC as a direct result of the reading produced by New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest.
Another Dude's Slingbakcs received a full production at 13th Street Repertory February 26 - April 4, 2010.

Andrew Black is collaborating with award-winning lyricist June Rachelson-Ospa (Final Judge for the contest) to turn the play into a musical. The musical, now called Big Man on Campus, had three workshop readings at 13th Street Repertory.

Letter to a Soldier by Debra Victoroff received a reading with
Q & A at 13th St Rep on October 10, 2011.

Aporia by Paul David Young received a reading with Q & A at 13th St Rep on October 10, 2011.

Aporia by Paul David Young was a finalist for the Kennedy Center's John Cauble Short Play Award. 

Inside the Coma of Wayne Morse won the 2009 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Writing Contest.  Congratulations Steve!