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Seven wonders: Fusion brings 'Uninvited Guests' contest winners to the stage
A play about sticky notes, Scrabble and a Bach composition has won top honors in the Fusion Theatre Company鈥檚 short works festival.
Durango playwright Joyce Fontana submitted one of more than 580 scripts about the theme of 鈥渦ninvited guests.鈥 She has won the Bradford Gromelski Jury Award with 鈥淪ticky Notes.鈥 The top seven jury-scoring scripts will receive full productions with seven directors and a professional ensemble from Thursday, June 6, through Sunday, June 9. The second seven winners will receive staged readings on Monday, June 10.
With 鈥淪ticky Notes,鈥 鈥淭his 鈥榰ninvited guest鈥 comes from somewhere deep in the past,鈥 said Dennis Gromelski, Fusion executive director. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very moving.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting the ways people interpreted that,鈥 he added.
Three of the top seven writers hail from international locations: Singapore, Canada and New Zealand. Most of the winners are new to 鈥淭he Seven.鈥
鈥淓very year, the quality of the scripts improves, as do the cast, directors and production team,鈥 Gromelski said. 鈥淚t has to be based on the theme; it鈥檚 not like 鈥榗lean out your closet.鈥 It seems like we鈥檙e attracting new talent. We really try to celebrate the playwrights.鈥
The winner are:
鈥淭he Unexpected Delight of Snowbirds鈥 by Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend, The Woodlands, Singapore. Claire and Brian were supposed to go away for Christmas. They鈥檙e not. Brian tries to make it up to Claire with a gift he thinks she鈥檒l appreciate. She doesn鈥檛.
鈥淎 Flicker鈥 by Guy 近距离内射合集ham, Ontario, Canada. Where there鈥檚 light, there鈥檚 hope, even if it鈥檚 intermittent. Two strangers battle over a flickering streetlight. One is throwing stones at it because it鈥檚 disrupting their sleep. For the other, the light represents their recently-deceased spouse.
鈥淪peed Bumps鈥 by Anne Valentino, Rockville, Maryland. During her early morning commute to work, she never expected to run into a speed bump vigilante on a mission. And he never expected that his self-initiated road project would garner quite this much attention.
鈥淭he Name of Action鈥 by Rex McGregor, Auckland, New Zealand. An itinerant couple encourage the manager of a trailer park to live his dream of playing 鈥淗amlet.鈥
鈥淔air Play鈥 by Cherielyn Ferguson, Piedmont, California. Romeo, Juliet and Will Shakespeare are shot through time and space 鈥 trading the familiar Globe Theatre for a modern marriage bureau. Do all the old rules apply, or is this a whole new world?
鈥淪peed Dating鈥 by Curt Strickland, Stoughton, Massachusetts. A widow and a widower 鈥 each deeply affected by loss 鈥 reluctantly attend a dating meet-up in a hotel conference room, their back-and-forth banter leads somewhere different than they expected.
And the bonus eighth play:
鈥淭he Visitation鈥 by Jen Silverman. Dana has been alone in her home for a bit too long. Either she is losing it or she is having an increasingly intimate relationship with a ghost.