Week Three Winner of the Players Theatre Short Play Festival BOO! 2024 Revealed

Last weekend concluded Be Bold! Productions 13th annual Short Play Festival Boo! at The Players Theatre, with a new selection of five 15-minute original short plays for SPF BOO! Week 3.

The audience-selected winner was "August & Ashbury", written by Riley Fee and directed by Tanner Bolin.

This one-act features musicians August (Riley Fee) and Ashbury (Kathryn Loggins), who are preparing to go onstage for a concert. Unfortunately, August is plagued by superstitions and is convinced the performance is doomed. With Ashbury's help and quite a bit of humor, he is able to overcome his fears and go out to perform.

"August & Ashbury" was in good company with four other spooky and irreverent one-acts.

"Deadline", written and directed by Mark William Butler, begins with frustrated playwright sitting in a bar, trying desperately to finish a short horror play that needs to be submitted to a contest by midnight. As he tries to imagine a horror villain to star in his story, he soon finds out that every cheesy character he creates has the same victim in mind: HIM. The play starred Kaitlyn Rose RaBocse (Sophia, Mrs. Magus, Marie Antoinette, Diabolus) Tanner Sands (Kenneth), and Josh Brelsford (Vampire, Ghost).

"Eight Bells", written by Matthew Foster and directed by Kevin Weston, introduces Ira (Michael Foster, u/s Tommy Thomas), an old man reflecting on the years of his life, specifically the relationship with his wife Gabriella (Lisa Foster). In the quiet hours, Ira finds himself the proprietor of a curious homecoming of his inner-demons as a ship's bell chimes (the bells played by Missi Foster-Hubbard: 21, Tristan Wayne: 35, and Andrew Lee Persinger: 50), marking the end of his life.

"Bits & Pieces", written and directed by Maryellen De Vivo, presents a feminist, phantasmic angle on the Frankenstein story. Bertha (Lauren Dodds) and Alice (Elizabeth Wright-Williams) meet and learn they are each ghosts looking to be reunited with their physical bodies so they can move on to the other side. But first, they must confront Guy (Blake Williams), the man who took their corpses as well as the corpse of newly deceased vaudeville dancer Caroline (Sarah Parr) for his own purposes.

"Debts from Beyond", written and directed by Julia Genoveva, features wife Rebecca (Katheryn Margaret) moving into an old Victorian house sold to her by realtor Marcia (Lynn Manuell) to have fresh start with her husband. However, Rebecca finds out that this is not a typical house; it is in fact inhabited by past tenant Gertrude (Alexis Tandit), who committed a terrible act against her now deceased daughter Beatrice (Lily Salgado).

The next festival, The Players Theatre LUV 2025 Short Play Festival, will run Feb 6 - 23, 2025 upstairs at The Players Theatre and is now accepting submissions. For more information, please visit ShortPlayNYC.com.

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