8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival Opens January 4, 2019

Santa Cruz County Actors' Theatre will present the 24th Annual 8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival, January 4 through February 3, 2019, at the Center Stage Theater in downtown Santa Cruz.

The annual ten-minute play festival is one of the most anticipated and popular events of the theatre season in Santa Cruz. Actors' Theatre is offering twice the fun again this season, with sixteen award-winning plays from their national playwriting contest, showing in repertoire over the five-week festival.

Every summer Actors' Theatre holds a national playwriting contest, judged by a select group of local writers and directors. The winning plays are then produced into full productions for the January Festival. The contest has become nationally renowned, with over 200 entrees every year from across the country and internationally.

"Over the years we have received plays from writers all over the world," says Artistic Director and Festival founder Wilma Marcus Chandler. "The 8 Tens @ Eight has become known as the premiere ten-minute play festival on the West Coast. We have proudly kept in touch with many of our winning playwrights and have seen them go on to have plays produced in larger venues, knowing it all started for them here in Santa Cruz."

This year's sixteen award-winning plays will be presented as an "A" and "B" night, eight ten-minute plays on each night, in rotation. A special ticket package is available to see any "A" and "B" night showing throughout the run of the Festival. "Our 24th season," adds Chandler, "offers a wide variety of comedy and drama. They are plays with heart, conscience and humor."

The 2019 Festival roster includes:
"A" Night
TEMPUS FUGIT by Greg Atkins. Directed by Cathy Warner.
THE DATING GAME by Rod McFadden. Directed by Nat Robinson.
GOSSIP QUEENS by Steven Capasso. Directed by Bonnie Ronzio.
JACKSON by Richard Lyons Conlon. Directed by Miguel Reyna.
MORNING IN AMERICA by William J. Royce. Directed by Robin Aronson.
JELLO SALAD by John Chandler. Directed by Erik Gandolfi.
FRODO LIVES by Elizabeth Flanagan. Directed by Karin Babbitt.
THE BIRTHDAY GIFT by Elizabeth Douglas. Directed by Kathie Krachtovil.

"B" NIGHT
RERUN by Simon Hunt. Directed by Sarah Albertson.
LOVE AT THE LOUVRE by Dianne Sposito. Directed by Peter Gelblum.
THE GREYBACK PAYBACK by Mark Saunders. Directed by Daria Troxell.
JORNADA DEL MUERTO by Gwen Flager. Directed by Marcus Cato.
WHERE'S THIS TRAIN GOING by Bruce Guelden. Directed by Anita Natale.
FRAMEWORKS by Mike McGeever. Directed by Bill Peters.
THE RUG by Brian Spencer. Directed by MarNae Taylor.
WHAT'S LEFT OVER by Eileen Valentino Flaxman. Directed by Helene Simkin Jara.

Founded in 1985, Actors' Theatre has a long history of being a vital part of the greater Santa Cruz area's theatre community, known for its productions of contemporary, cutting edge theatre and new plays. Actors' Theatre produces the acclaimed 8 Tens @ Eight Short Play Festival which is greatly loved not only by the public, but also by the theatre community for being an outlet to nurture and develop their skills. Actors' Theatre also supports emerging playwrights from around the country and beyond, with possibilities to show their new works in their annual short playwriting contest.
Producer/President: Bonnie Ronzio. Artistic Director: Wilma Marcus Chandler. www.sccat.org.

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