Island Theatre is Accepting Submissions of Original 10-Minute Plays for the 11th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival – This year the theme is: HUNGER (Submission Deadline, Feb. 14, 2024)

Margaret Millmore | Posted on November 2, 2023 |

The theme for this year’s festival is HUNGER. Hunger can be literal, or figurative. Unmet or satisfied. Regardless, it powers our emotions and drives our actions. Playwrights may interpret HUNGER as they wish, but the notion of HUNGER must be central to the play.

In support of their theme, Island Theatre will donate 10% of ticket sales to a nonprofit agency that addresses hunger.

“We considered 10-12 different themes and, after a lot of discussion, whittled it down to HUNGER. We were looking for something that was open ended and could be interpreted in multiple ways, but not so open ended as to not provide some sense of direction to the playwrights,” says Robin Simons, Board Member. “We also wanted something that had dynamism, that suggested action and perhaps conflict. And we wanted something that had a little punch to it, that would make people stop and think ‘oh, that’s interesting’. Hunger seemed to fit the bill for all those things.”

“The concept of HUNGER drives action, attitude, appetite, ambition, compulsion, satisfaction, aggression and compassion. In short, it is the Mother of Motivation as well as Invention,” added Board Member, Steve Stolee.

As with previous Ten-Minute Play Festival submissions, 10 winning plays will be selected by a panel of theatre professionals and members of the Island Theatre board, and will be announced in April 2024. The 10 plays will be fully produced for the stage and presented in four performances at the new BPA Buxton Center for Performing Arts on Bainbridge Island on August 22-24, 2024.

All Kitsap County playwrights—established and aspiring—are invited to submit original plays, no more than 10 minutes in length, to Island Theatre’s 11^th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival for consideration. Deadline for submissions is February 14, 2023.

The contest is open to all playwrights high school age and older who currently live or work in Kitsap County or who previously lived or worked in Kitsap County for a significant period of time.

For more information and submission guidelines, go to www.IslandTheatre.org.

About Island Theatre (IT): The idea for Island Theatre came about in 1994 by Louise Mills and friend Michele McCrackin. Their first production, The Play’s the Thing by P.G. Wodehouse (adapted from a play by Ferenc Molnár) was performed at Bainbridge High School’s auditorium. It was a huge success, and at a dinner for the cast and crew, held at the end of the successful show run, they decided to start a theatre company.

Island Theatre was born and named at a meeting later that year. The first board members were: Mary Braden, Steve Buechler, Kate Carruthers, Michele McCrackin, Louise Mills, Steve Nicolet; and Cynthia Sears, with Steve Stolee serving as its first president. In 1995, Island Theatre became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and produced its first official play.

Throughout the years, IT has operated with an all-volunteer board, a minimal budget, and without its own theater, giving rise to its motto, “Can we rehearse at YOUR house?” In 2012, IT launched the Island Theatre Ten-Minute Play Festival, the brainchild of then IT board member Sara Scribner, to showcase plays by established and emerging playwrights from throughout Kitsap County. Now in its 11th year, the TMPF typically draws over 50 entries, with the top plays, as selected by a panel of theatre professionals, performed over a weekend in August to packed houses at Bainbridge Performing Arts.

With some exceptions, Island Theatre productions are free to the community, with donations gratefully accepted. Since its inception, Island Theatre has presented more than 200 plays at the Bainbridge Public Library or on another stage, such as Bainbridge Performing Arts.

Island Theatre includes three main program efforts: Island Theatre at the Library, a series of staged readings of plays; Island Theatre at Your House, a series of open play readings hosted in private homes; and the annual Ten-Minute Play Festival. The mission of Island Theatre is to provide low-cost, high quality theatrical programming, and over the years they have unofficially added the intention to provide learning and access to theatre arts. With the IT Ten-Minute Play Festival they offer a showcase for the original playwriting by Kitsap County authors, stage directing opportunities for up to ten local directors, roles for 25 to 30 actors and summer opportunity for our Kitsap communities to celebrate this local talent and creativity.

For more information on Island Theatre, click here.