Bishop Arts Theatre Center Presents Labor Day ME & MY MASKS Festival of Monologues

Roland Tec has partnered with Bishop Arts Center in Dallas and their Executive Producing Director Teresa Coleman Wash and by late June the call was going out to screenwriters, playwrights and solo performers all across the country to write and submit a monologue for their Zoom festival. The theme for 'Hear Me Out' New American Monologue Competition 2020 p. 2 this inaugural festival was set as 'Me & My Masks' and now, less than one week before submissions officially close, more than 200 monologues on every topic imaginable have rushed in from 43 U.S. States and as far away as New Zealand. Writers need only consider themselves American to qualify for entry.

A National Circle of Judges made up of writers, directors and actors from the worlds of film, television and theatre, will begin reading and evaluating the entries shortly after the 15th of August. And on Labor Day, 12 Finalists will perform their winning entries at the Zoom Festival where the Finalists Judges playwrights Kia Corthron, Gary Garrison, Julie Jensen, Kate Snodgrass and Doug Wright will announce the 4 top prizes totaling $5,000 in cash.

Audiences will have an opportunity to catch a first glimpse of the best of the best when the 12 Competition Finalists pieces are premiered at the Labor Day festival event.

The theme for this year's competition and festival, 'Me & My Masks' allows for the possibility of writers addressing the CoViD19 pandemic but does not require it. "The word 'masks' is open to as wide a range of interpretations as the best writers can imagine," says Tec.

"COVID-19 has provided an opportunity for us to test the waters and experiment with technology in ways we never imagined. We have never considered ourselves to be a traditional theatre company, and in this moment, that feels like a strength. The 'Me and My Masks' Monologue Competition allows us to expand our territory and work with artists from all over the country," observes Coleman Wash.

In addition to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes, a special prize for Most Daring Monologue is supported by a grant from the August van der Becq Family Foundation.

Sprinkled in between some of the solo pieces will be solo performances by musicians, some of whom have written short pieces specially for the event. Tina Stafford will accompany herself on the accordion (as she did most recently in the touring production of ONCE), Mary Feinsinger (conductor of the Broadway at 92nd Street Y Chorus) will perform, and additional musical appearances will be made by Broadway Bach Orchestra violinist Guy Kettelhack and Sacramento composer/clarinettist Deborah Pittman.

Reservations for the Labor Day 'Me & My Masks' Festival of Monologues can be made here. Tickets $5.

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