The Downtown Urban Arts Festival Reveals 22nd Season Award Winners

Best Short: RECORD by Eduardo Pavez Goye and Rodrigo Muñoz-Medina
2nd Place: COLLECTIVE EMPATHY FORMATION FROM 1968 AND 2018 by Calley N. Anderson
3rd Place: (Tie) EXTRAJUDICIAL by Sheila Duane and SALT FLATS by Juan Ramirez, Jr.

Audience Award: A DISEASED FEELING by Ten Smith and COLLECTIVE EMPATHY FORMATION FROM 1968 AND 2018 by Calley N. Anderson

MEET THE WINNERS:

SELF TAPE by Daniel Duren

Anna gets more than she bargained for as her coaching session with renowned actor, Robert Keusch, comes to an end. In her desperation to get the perfect take, she pleads with him to extend the session. What begins as a heated discourse spirals into deeper conversations about Robert's checkered past.

Delilah is a lesbian, and Claire is confused. She could never say that, though. What started off as a friendship everyone secretly believed would lead to Claire's coming out is majorly disrupted when Claire gets a boyfriend, Tyler. When Tyler grows increasingly suspicious of Claire and Delilah's friendship, Claire must confront how far she would go to maintain the facade of her straight relationship, and how much she is willing to betray Delilah.

ONE WEEK FROM PARADISE by Cris Eli Blak

Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, a young man learns he will be released in seven days. He must keep his head down and stay out of trouble, which becomes increasingly difficult as his personal relationships begin changing and he becomes hyper-aware of the effects of the prison system.

RECORD by Eduardo Pavez Goye and Rodrigo Muñoz-Medina

Valerie and Eric are a young political power couple whose day is derailed when a stranger picks up their son from school. When the stranger returns the son to their home, the three spend a tense and at times surreal evening together, where the truth about their history is revealed. Originally written in Spanish and produced for a Chilean audience, the play was first adapted and had a small production in New York in 2021 through a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Eduardo Pavez Goye holds a BA in Theatre Acting. He is a six time winner of the Chilean National Dramatic Writing Contest. Plays published in Chile and Mexico; staged in Chile, Germany, Mexico and the US. Fellow from the Goethe Institut, the International Theater Institut, and Columbia University. Has directed dozens of plays and written over 500 scripts for television and cinema. Screenwriting studies at the Internationale FilmSchule Köln. Current instructor and PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance at Columbia University.

Rodrigo Muñoz-Medina has worked in performing arts for almost 30 years. He was part of the National Theater of Chile and his works have been produced in Chile in diverse venues in the country. He has written plays and film scripts, dedicating part of his work to research on theater, memory and human rights. In recent years, he has dedicated himself to writing musical works. He currently works at the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of his country.

COLLECTIVE EMPATHY FORMATION FROM 1968 AND 2018 by Calley N. Anderson

Five research study participants gather in a conference room. Their task appears simple and straight-forward: select 10 events from the year 1968 that they feel impacted the nation's consciousness and view of empathy. What transpires is a reflection of what is seen, heard, and missed when history, memory, and living bodies must merge in unflinching ways.

EXTRAJUDICIAL by Sheila Duane

There's a world that fate plans for us. Then there's the real world: stained, twisted, and broken by hate.

Sheila Duane is a teacher, playwright, and associate artistic director of a small play-reading program in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Sheila is an alumnus of the DUAF; her plays, The Palmist, The Loom, and Restoration Parts, have been chosen to be part of the festival between 2020 and 2022. Recently, her plays have also been produced at the JSAC in Ocean Grove, in Long Branch, Middletown, Maplewood, NJ, in Florida with Femuscripts, and at the Magnetic Theater in North Carolina.

SALT FLATS by Juan Ramirez, Jr.

In Death Valley Desert, salty Luis embodies the angry people in his life who have left behind negative thoughts in his mind, in hopes of ridding them, to find his own voice and yet, when he's finally able to speak for himself, what will he say?