Winners Announced In The 7th Annual Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition

The grand-prize winner, and finalists have been announced in the 7th annual Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition with Steven Bogart taking the 2024 grand-prize for his provocative and timely play, Made in Heaven.

The prize comes with a $10,500 cash prize and development for the play with risk theatre founder Edwin Wong. The finalists, which are awarded $700 each, include The Mesquite Tree: An American Tragedy by David Davila, Monsters by Michael Mobley, Seduced by Rebecca Osborne, I, Will, will! by Philip Spensley, and Incendiary: A Wildfire Play by Nathan Wagner.

In Made In Heaven, when Adam Huntsman, an illustrious and tenured art history professor, unexpectedly includes Jess Koons's sexually explicit photographs, Made in Heaven, in his Senior Art Seminar, shock and disgust for Huntsman ripple through the community of an elite art college, forcing Nancy Pandora, the first appointed female dean to face afflicted a cademia's entanglements surrounding academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the politics of art in the post "me-too" cancel-culture. Focused on trigger warnings and what constitutes sexual harassment, the professor refuses to back down and find a comrpomise to his position and prerogative to teach controversial content. At the same time, the proper response to his arrogance becomes a central dilemma. Steven Bogart is a playwright, screenwriter, and freelance stage director. In 2015, he received a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Award in playwriting for The Last Skywriter in the Universe. He was a 2009 Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant recipient in playwriting for his play Pigcat, receiving the Holland New Voice Award at the 2009 Great Plains Theater Conference. In 2015, Wheelock Family Theatre commissioned him to write and direct a new adaptation of Pinocchio through the lens of Japanese mythology. His play Alice in War was chosen for an equity showcase production at Arielle Topper's Summer Play Festival NYC in 2007. He is also an award-winning screenwriter, placing in multiple competitions. His screenplay Blood's Child was optioned by True Friends Production in LA. He co-wrote and directed his first feature film, Orange Crush, which is currently being edited. He has directed for the American Repertory Theater (Cabaret), among others.

In The Mesquite Tree: An American Tragedy by David Davila, Manuela gave birth to Fatima at a scared sixteen. Fatima gave birth to Blanca at a love-struck fourteen. Blanca gave birth to Carmel at a desperate sixteen. Carmel gave birth to Destiny at a rebellious fifteen. Now Destiny is an aloof fifteen, and Blanca wants more for her granddaughter than the monotonous life of a young mother stuck in the same small house in South Texas as five generations of her abuelas. Can she change her family's destiny before there's another mouth to feed, or is the cycle of poverty too crushing for one woman to combat? Filled with laughter through tears, The Mesquite Tree: an American Tragedy is an intimate examination of the small joys and painful traumas of a far too common family of strong Latina women who, like mesquite trees, find ways to plant their tough roots deep into the desert dirt and flourish in the harshest of conditions.

David Davila is a writer and performer from South Texas, where the wall's been standing since the Bush administration. Winner of the National New Play Network Smith Prize for Political Theatre and the New American Voices National Playwriting Award, his work stands at the intersection of queer-culture and mestizaje ranging from plays and musicals, to poetry and stand-up comedy. He's a Playwrights Horizons Artist Grant Recipient, a Roundabout Theatre Company SpaceJam Resident, a Primary Stages Rockwell Scholar, and a Disney TV Fellowship Semi-Finalist. An alumnus of Indiana University, The University of Texas San Antonio, the Second City Training Center in Chicago, and the Primary Stages ESPA Playwriting School in Manhattan, he is Assistant Professor of Playwriting at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Follow him at @davidodavila - daviddavila.net

In Monsters by Michael Mobley, three black haunted house performers become the monsters they portray, which asks the question: are monsters made or are they born? When their supervisor unexpectedly resigns and needs a replacement, one of the performers sees the promotion as a way to get out of his terrible living situation, but for the other two performers the promotion becomes more deadly than the haunted house itself. Michael writes about the intimate and private lives of Black Americans throughout America's past, present, and future, sometimes using different genres to tell these stories. Two of his one-acts were Regional Finalists for the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play. His full-length play, Monsters had a reading/workshop at Quick Silver Theater Company and Prologue Theatre's Foreword New Works Series. It was a Finalist for the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and The Playwrights Realm's Scratchpad Series. He was also a Finalist for the Greenhouse Residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Many Voices Fellowship at the Playwrights' Center. His work has been supported by the Atlantic Center for the Arts and Echo Theater Company (National Young Playwrights in Residence Program 21-22).

In Seduced by Rebecca Osborne, when seventeen-year-old Roz Visser's homeland is invaded in May of 1940, her father is taken from their Dutch village and held in a German work camp. Roz, rebellious by nature, and her mother feel powerless against the enemy forces who control their country and occupy their village. Roz laments the cowardness of the press in reporting on the war. If adults lack the courage to act, what can a teenager do? Mrs. Visser's job at the police station puts her in daily contact with the German Commandant, where she knows complying with his orders helps ensure Roz's safety. But when Roz witnesses the atrocities of war firsthand, she refuses to stand by any longer. Defying her mother, Roz secretly joins her friends Ella, Tess, and Zoe as a member of the Dutch Resistance. As the weeks pass, these four young women dare to be remarkable. Using youth to their advantage, they seek ways to help those in danger and opportunities to foil German plans. When the Germans begin recruiting Dutch citizens as collaborators, suspicion of locals grows. Objectives start to collide, and a blurry moral line threatens their efforts. Seduced is a story in which courage becomes contagious, risky choices regretful, and the truth of a generational lie is laid bare. Social and political topics are often the impetus for Rebecca Osborne's stage plays. She's drawn to docudrama, fabulism, futurism, and stories from mythology. She is a prior O'Neill Semi-Finalist, Texas Educational Theatre Association Playfest Award winner, and an invited participant to the Kennedy Center Intensive. Her dramatic work has been produced Off-Off-Broadway. Rebecca holds both a BFA and MA in Theatre and has specialized studies in playwriting. She served on the Board of the International Centre of Women Playwrights (ICWP), where she was instrumental in the 50/50 project launch. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll, and Scriptworks in Austin, Texas. where she lives.

In I, Will, will! by Philip Spensley, we do not know why young Will Shakespeare suddenly left his home town of Stratford, abandoning his deeply indebted father and mother and his wife and child. Nor do we know what drew him to the theatre and how he got involved in it, what roles he may have played as a reputedly primary actor of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and later the King's Men, on a par with leading actor Richard Burbage, as one contemporary document reports. Based on research and conjecture, as well as drawing from Shakespeare's own works, I, Will, Will! brings to life the young Will Shakespeare as he ignores the potential risk of his actions of once again poaching deer on the estate of "the law is me" Sir Thomas Lucy, High Constable of Warwickshire whom, to his considerable detriment, he has run afoul of before. In killing Lucy's favorite mastiff that has attacked his father he sets in motion the action of the play. Relentless pursued by Lucy, quick thinking Will must use his wits, opportunistically improvising escape after escape, while digging himself ever deeper and at the same time discovering new talents and who and what he is. Finally cornered, Will must face reality that to save his life he must embrace the tragedy of having to abandon the family he loves and his life in Stratford. Improvising one more ruse he escapes into a future he does not wish, only to find fame and wealth, as the man we think we know. A dual Canadian and US citizen, Philip Spensley has acted extensively in theatre, film and television in the US and Canada, as well as directing for professional, educational and community theatre. He has taught for the Universities of Guelph, Loyola and Concordia in Montreal, Wayne State, St. Olaf College, the Banff School of Fine Arts, and The National Theatre School of Canada. Besides I, Will, Will!, plays include Johnny Fibber (a musical), and East of the Sun and West of the Moon both for young audiences; Bustout, commissioned by Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival (from whom he received their Tyrone Guthrie Award); An Evening of Joe Hill, (commissioned) featuring Peggy Seeger; Hell's Bells, a one-act published in two Canadian theatre anthologies; and adaptations of Euripides' Iphegenia at Aulis, Sophocles' Philoctetes, and Euripides' The Trojan Women.

In Incendiary: A Wildfire Play by Nathan Wagner, family can be difficult. Family can be painful. When the people who are supposed to love and support you are incapable of either, everyday life can feel like a powder keg just waiting for a spark. Add the pressures of a mounting political campaign and a looming environmental threat, and who knows how hot it will burn. Incendiary confronts contemporary social issues and existential threats through the lives and struggles of an average dysfunctional family. Will they manage to overcome the walls they have put between each other, or will they be trapped behind them while the flames consume them? Nathan Wagner is a graduate of Youngstown State University with a BFA in Musical Theatre and an emerging playwright in Pittsburgh PA. He has over a decade of experience as a theatre artist and a lifetime of experience as a theatre lover. Though his degree is performance-based as an actor, he also has significant experience as a director, dramaturg, designer, and playwright. As an artist he seeks to promote empathy and encourage audiences to seek out unique voices and perspectives. As an educator he has a profound interest in cultivating the passions of fellow artists and igniting the interests of burgeoning students of theatre. He is a collaborator by practice and by philosophy, and he strives to create a theatrical and educational space where all can be welcomed and comfortable.

The Semifinalists in the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition include Private Fire by Kirt Shineman, The Art of Arson by Hutchins Foster, Generations: A War Story by Beth A. Huber, Captive by Shelli Pentimall Bookler, Rabies by Gabriel Komisar, Water Pipes: A Love Story by Amy Hanson, Shakespeare's Greatest Rival by Jim Beard, The Bowery by Brennan Reid, Philia by India Kotis, A Climate of Errors by Kevin Delin, O Negative by Sarah Kohl, Marilyn/MISFITS/Miller by Rich Rubin, 1968 by Curt Strickland, Watertown Blink by Deborah Davidson, For the Love of God by Jacob Zack, Ed and Tom Go to the Races by Edgar Chisholm, and Legions of Venus or Tis Pity His Majesty's a Whore by Tyler Joseph Rossi

The jurors of the 2024 Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Competition include Franky D. Gonzalez, Caroline Russell-King, and Miranda Zest. There were 121 entries this year. In the last few years, the number of entries has been trending down from the 200 or so entries the first year. The number of plays that have been specifically written to target the competition, however, has been steadily trending higher, a welcome development as the competition, now going into its seventh year, matures. If you're looking for tips and strategies on how to win the competition, check out my writings on risk and theatre on my Academia page: https://brown.academia.edu/EdwinWong As you continue writing, I hope you will consider the competition again in the future.

Edwin Wong founded the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Playwright Competition with Langham Court Theatre to align tragedy with the modern fascination with the uncertainty and chance. It is the world's largest competition for the writing of tragedy. Edwin Wong believes that it's time to reboot the ancient art of tragedy. He developed his theory of tragedy called risk theatre to align tragedy with modern concepts of chance and uncertainty. The result is a tragic stage where every dramatic act is a gambling act and risk runs riot. His first book, a call to action called: The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected came out in 2019. Edwin Wong founded the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Playwright Competition with Langham Court Theatre to align tragedy with the modern fascination with the uncertainty and chance. It is the world's largest competition for the writing of tragedy. His second book, When Life Gives You Risk, Make Risk Theatre: Three Tragedies and Six Essays, came out in 2022. It is a collaborative work featuring finalists and winners from the competition.

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