AACT NewPlayFest Winning Plays - VOLUME ONE

The Six AACT NewPlayFest Winning Plays are ...

Exit Laughing ~ Comedy by Paul Elliott

When the biggest highlight in your life for the past 30 years has been your weekly bridge night out with the "girls," what do you do when one of your foursome inconveniently dies?

If you're Connie, Leona and Millie, three southern ladies from Birmingham, you "borrow" the ashes from the funeral home for one last card game, and the wildest, most exciting night of your lives involves a police raid, a stripper and a whole new way of looking at all the fun you can have when you're truly living

The Seamstress ~ Drama by Cece Dwyer

It's 1916, a time when women's rights are far from equal

Cynthia McFarland, attractive and gracious wife of the extremely wealthy, albeit licentious and abusive, Richard McFarland, finds herself in a desperately compromising position

He wants the requisite wife in an attempt to enter politics

She wants to free herself from a brutal relationship

At Richard's offhand suggestion, Cynthia hires Andorra Hamilton, a beautiful young seamstress, to be a working guest in their home and outfit her for the upcoming social season and political functions, initiating a series of events that unravel the secret lives of everyone in the McFarland mansion.

The Vanishing Point ~ Drama by Nedra Pezold Roberts

How do you find your way home when the land, the culture and way of life, and even the relationships of your birth are vanishing all around you?

That's the problem that haunts Pierre, an environmental engineer recently returned to Point Critique to head an experimental program designed to halt the loss of Louisiana's coastal wetlands

What he finds, in addition to a dangerously fragile ecosystem, is a brother (now engaged to Pierre's former girlfriend) determined to break free of the trap he sees as Cajun culture, and a father, Paul, still smarting from the pain of his broken relationship with Pierre

When Paul's shrimp boat sinks in a fiery wreck at sea, Pierre believes that replacing the vessel is the way to connect with his father and heal old wounds

But Paul wants more than a boat; he wants his son back

Gaining his lost son, however, won't prevent Paul from losing the other one

Jellofish ~ Drama/Comedy by Jim Henry

Four World War II veterans have been playing a monthly game of poker and dragging 5% from every pot since 1945, and this "side pot" has grown to a sizable fortune

As the men compete, they struggle over what to do with their shared nest egg

As the debates escalate, their conflicting views on love, friendship, politics, death and taxes are exposed

The events of their lives are revealed as each player comes upon random "history chips," created during the past 50 years by one of the players when a significant event occurred in their lives

While the significance of history chips such as Grand Slam, Raccoon and Jellofish are revealed, the deeper implications of a lifetime of friendship and competition are explored

The table is set - shuffle up and deal.

End Papers ~ Drama by Barry Weinberg

Kathy has to use all her ingenuity and intelligence if she is to avoid losing her home and all her possessions after her husband's secret life is exposed

At the same time, she is forced to fend off unwelcome romantic overtures from the old boyfriend who reappears in her life

Kathy is convinced she can build a money-making business out of End Papers, the used bookstore where she works, and is encouraged by the store's 80-year-old owner

But if she is to make her plan a reality, Kathy must use all her wiles to deal with her husband and ex-boyfriend, both of whom insist on dominating her affections and stifling her independence.

The Boatwright ~ Drama by Bo Wilson

Ben Calloway can't seem to get his bearings in his own home anymore

Fifty-seven years old, recently widowed, childless and retired from the Kansas Highway Patrol, he's adrift

And even though he's never seen the ocean, he decides he should build a boat and sail across the Atlantic

Single-handedly

When he decides to let his troubled neighbor, film-school dropout Jaime Watson, make a movie about his project, the two men - generations apart and lonely in very different ways - force each other to confront the isolation in their own lives

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