The 30th annual NVTA One-Act Play Festival was held June 17, 18, 24 and 25 at the James Lee Center in Falls Church, Virginia. The award ceremony was held Sunday, June 26, at 7 p.m.

Best Supporting Actor

• Rich Prien as Wayne, Cow Tipping, Zemfira Stage. (Winner)
• Kris Sayler as Lucifer, After the Garden, Prince William Little Theatre
• Will MacLeod as David/Stoner, The Quantum Suicide of Sophie Miller, Castaways Repertory Theatre

Best Supporting Actress

• Becky Farris as Heather, Chick Fillet, Castaways Repertory Theatre
• Rebecca Hausman as Rachel, Chick Fillet, Castaways Repertory Theatre. (Winner)
• Aimee Snow as Alice, The Quantum Suicide of Sophie Miller, Castaways Repertory Theatre

Best Actor

• Ted Ballard as God, After the Garden, Prince William Little Theatre
• Matt Jordan as Roberto, Clean, Fauquier Community Theatre. (Winner)
• Matthew Hartman as Billy, A Brief Period of Time, Port City Playhouse

Best Actress

• Katy Jordan as Marisol, Clean, Fauquier Community Theatre. (Winner)
• Maureen Rogers as Mary, This Play Sucks, Laurel Mill Playhouse
• Julie Rogers as Lynn, Walking Off Pluto, Laurel Mill Playhouse
• Colleen Close as Mara, Chick Fillet, Castaways Reportory Theatre
• Katherine Bisulca as Regina, Chick Fillet, Castaways Repertory Theatre
• Alexia Poe as Sophie, The Quantum Suicide of Sophie Miller, Castaways Repertory Theatre

Judges’ Discretionary Award #1

• Outstanding Set and Soundscape: Clean, Fauquier Community Theatre

Judges’ Discretionary Award #2

• Outstanding Comic Performance: Ted Ballard as God, After the Garden, Prince William Little Theatre

Judges’ Discretionary Award #3

• Outstanding Ensemble: Chick Fillet, Castaways Repertory Theatre

Best Director

• Larry Simmons, Walking Off Pluto, Laurel Mill Playhouse
• Mona Kay Helper, Clean, Fauquier Community Theatre. (Winner)
• Zina Bleck, Chick Fillet, Castaways Repertory Theatre

Best Production Of An Original Play

• Walking Off Pluto, Laurel Mill Playhouse
• Clean, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Chick Fillet, Castaways Repertory Theatre. (Winner)

Best Overall Production

• Walking Off Pluto, Laurel Mill Playhouse
• Clean, Fauquier Community Theatre. (Winner)
• Chick Fillet, Castaways Repertory Theatre

NVTA Scholarships Announced

Three scholarships were awarded this year for performance. First place with $1000 was awarded to Madeleine Curtis of Loudoun Valley High School, Purcellville (sponsored by McLean Community Players). Second place with $500 was awarded to Matt Kelly, Osbourne High School, Manassas (sponsored by Prince William Little Theatre). Third place with $500 was awarded to Emily Adler of W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax (sponsored by Providence Players).

As part of the entertainment during the awards ceremony, Ms. Curtis and Mr. Kelly each sang two numbers, and Ms. Adler performed two short monologues. More entertainment for the evening was provided by the vocal stylings of Rachel Harrington and Richard Yingling. Accompanists for the evening were Jonathan Blank and Milton Rodgers.

Participation and Entry in The NVTA Festival (2011)

Please remember that just like last year, if you submit 2 plays, you can submit 2 published plays instead of 1 published and 1 original. Minimum running time, inclusive of curtain call if you have one, is 20 minutes. Maximum running time, inclusive of curtain call if you have one, is 60 minutes. We will again be doing open adjudication this year, so everyone can listen to the judge’s comments. 

There will be a technial meeting held at the James Lee Center no later than third week in May so each production can become familiar with the performing space and discuss any administrative questions you have. Please note, while each show only performs once, anyone participating in the festival must be prepared to perform on ANY of the 4 performance dates. In order to create a balanced program, we cannot accept special requests. The main criteria used to determine the sequence of performances are: running time and content of the show. The schedule will be finalized in mid May 2011. 

You will have one 50 minute technical rehearsal when you can set you light and sound cues and spike your set. That technical rehearsal will occur the same week as your performance on a date that will be provided to you in mid May once the performance schedule is finalized.

For your information, the forms for the 2011 NVTA 29th One-Act Play Festival are provided here in MS-Word format.

• Entry Form (Due March 6, 2011)
• Play Notification Form (Due March 18, 2011)
• Playbill Information Form (Due May 6, 2011)
• Production Requirements Form (Due May 20, 2011)

Due dates are as follows:

• March 6 – electronic submission of Entry Form 
• March 13 – hard copy of Entry Form and $50 entry fee/production 
• March 18 – Play Notification
• May 6 – Program Information
• May 20 – Production Requirements Form

The festival will be held the 3rd and 4th weekends in June 2011: June 17, 18, 24, 25 with the awards ceremony on June 26th. In addition to evening performances, there may be matinees on either Saturday depending on the number of entries received. 

Best Supporting Actor

• Zachary Fletcher, Take Five, Pied Piper Theatre – Center for the Arts
• Greg Crowe, Car Wash, Castaways Repertory Theatre
• Kevin Walker, Car Wash, Castaways Repertory Theatre (Winner)

Best Supporting Actress

• Shannon Kitchen, Take Five, Pied Piper Theatre – Center for the Arts
• Ellen McKinstrie, Car Wash, Castaways Repertory Theatre (Winner)
• Christina Clayton, Reese and Babe, Fauquier Community Theatre

Best Actor

• Jim Harris, Reese and Babe, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Jay Tilley, Your Mother’s Butt, Springfield Community Theatre
• Donald Neal, Heroes, Springfield Community Theatre (Winner)

Best Actress

• Penny McKee, Reese and Babe, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Becky Farris, The Apple Yard, Zemfira Stage
• Erin Gallalee, Your Mother’s Butt, Springfield Community Theatre (Winner)

Best Director

• Sallie Willows, Reese and Babe, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Melissa Jo York-Tilley, Your Mother’s Butt, Springfield Community Theatre
• Terri Caretti, Car Wash, Castaways Repertory Theatre
• Lori Muhlstein, The Meeting, Castaways Repertory Theatre (Winner)

Best Production of an Original Play

• The Apple Yard, Zemfira Stage
• The Meeting, Castaways Repertory Theatre (Winner)
• Just Another Saturday Night, Prince William Little Theatre

Best Overall Production

• Reese and Babe, Fauquier Community Theatre
• Your Mother’s Butt, Springfield Community Theatre
• The Meeting, Castaways Repertory Theatre (Winner)

Judge’s Award #1: Outstanding Comedy Performance:

• Your Mother’s Butt, Springfield Community Theatre – Erin Gallalee, Jay Tilley, Melissa Jo York-Tilley

Judge’s Award #2: Sound Design

• Gary Crawford, Just Another Saturday Night, Prince William Little Theatre

Judge’s Award #3: Small Ensemble

• Heroes, Springfield Community Theatre – Fred Lash, Donald Neal, Cal Whitehurst

Participation and Entry in The NVTA Festival (2010)

For your information, the forms for the 2010 NVTA 28th One-Act Play Festival are provided here in MS-Word format.

• Entry Form (Due March 19, 2010)
• Play Notification Form (Due March 20, 2010)
• Playbill Information Form (Due May 8, 2010)
• Production Requirements Form (Due May 21, 2010)

Due dates are as follows:

• March 19, 2010 – Entry Form and $50 entry fee/production
• March 20, 2009 – Play Notification
• May 8, 2010 – Program Information
• May 21, 2010 – Production Requirements Form

NVTA was founded in 1980 to further communications, involvement and support among community theatres, as well as increasing community interest and awareness of theatre activity in the Northern Virginia and Metropolitan area.

To this end, it has helped foster among the member groups the sharing of ideas and personnel, as well as assisting in making known the availability of costumes, properties, and set-pieces which could be shared, thus lowering the ever-increasing costs of producing plays and musicals.

Specifically, the NVTA sponsors the annual Northern Virginia One Act Play Festival in June and  produces calendars each year, giving pertinent information and production schedules of all member groups.

In 1993, in order to include groups from all the surrounding metropolitan area as full members, the name Northern Virginia Theatre Alliance was changed to NVTA.

NVTA also sponsors an annual scholarship competition open to local talented high school seniors pursuing the performing arts.

Friday, June 19, 7:30

• Springfield Community Theatre (SCT) – Spoon River Anthology (Previously Published) 60 minutes Via musical interludes, we are introduced in a cemetery to the ghosts of those who were inhabitants of this town, and whose secrets have gone with them to the grave. There are 60 odd characterizations and vignettes in this constantly interesting entertainment offering an amazingly varied array of roles and impersonations, from young lovers and preachers and teachers to the funny chronicle of the poor mixed up Jew who ends up in the wrong cemetery. Both the solid and humorous sides of life are portrayed, with fetching ballads, and the free verse form of Masters.
• Zoon Vadar Productions (ZVP) – Lone Star (Previously Published) 60 minutes, mature theme, strong language Lone Star takes place in the cluttered backyard of a small town Texas bar. Roy, a brawny, macho type who had once been a local high school hero, is back in town after a hitch in Vietnam, and trying to reestablish his position in the community. Joined by his younger brother, Ray (who worships him), Roy sets about consuming a case of beer while regaling Ray with tales of his military and amorous exploits. Apparently Roy cherishes three things above all; country; his sexy young wife; and his 1959 pink Thunderbird convertible. With the arrival of Cletis, the fatuous, newlywed son of the local hardware store owner, the underpinnings of Roy’s world begin to collapse as it gradually comes out that Ray had slept with his brother’s wife during his absence and, horror or horrors, has just demolished is cherished Thunderbird.

Saturday, June 20, 7:30

• Prince William Little Theatre (PWLT) – Capone (Previously Published) 45 minutes, mature theme Al Capone, his brain ravaged by syphilis, wanders in his retirement home in Florida, talking to himself, revisiting conversations he had years ago, trying to make sense of his life. The girls, the murders, glories and horrors of his mobster past mix with memories of his childhood and his time in prison, his hatred and his growing dementia. Here is a rich, funny, horrifying and moving outsider’s view of American in the first half of the twentieth century.
• Fauquier Community Theater (FCT) – Garden of Eden (Original) 25 minutes The Play takes place “In the Beginning.” In the Garden of Eden. There are three characters Adam, Eve, and of course, God. An irreverent, comical, and in some ways moving interpretation of the Bible’s story of the birth of mankind.
• Castaways Repertory Theatre (CRT) – On Tidy Endings (Previously Published) 60 minutes, mature theme This second act of Safe Sex begins after a man has died of AIDS, leaving behind a son, a male lover and an ex wife. She still loves him and accepts the fact that he was gay and that he died in the arms of his male lover, who selflessly cared for him right up until the end.

Friday, June 26, 7:30

• Center for the Arts, Pied Piper Theatre (PPT) – Candid (Previously Published) 35 minutes T.J., a young student photographer, chronicles the break-up of his family after his Mother walks out. The demise of the family and its devastating effect are captured in dramatic and photographic flashbacks. T.J. tries to make sense out of all this, but no one is willing to talk or to listen; using his photographs, he reflects. “All Art Is Enlightening. But Does It Have To Be So Painful?”
• FCT – Relative Strangers (Previously Published) 30 minutes, Family Show A young airline passenger decides that the woman seated next to her might be the mother she never had. She finds an ally in the wacky stewardess who, unlike the reluctant mother figure, believes these two passengers are a match made in heaven.
• CRT – Til Death Do Us Part (Original) 60 minutes After 27 years of marriage a couple decides to get a divorce. On the way to signing their divorce papers they are in a fatal car accident and get to travel to the “after life” together to work out their differences before they can move on. Their children too are in the process of working out their differences. Heart warming and funny, this piece will leave you wondering “what comes next”?

Saturday, June 27, 7:30

• PWLT – Duet (Original) 60 minutes, strong language The two owner/operators of a theater on the brink of going under are pinning all their hopes to remain open on a recital by a world famous Russian opera singer. The problem is the singer’s colorful past may be more than the two men bargained for as the try to keep her happy until the night of the performance. As their plan, as well as their lies to get her to come there, begin to unravel, will the recital ever take place?
• Little Theatre of Alexandria (LTA) – Hero Worship (Original) 60 minutes, mature theme Mark and Magda Small, an up and coming young couple, join their childhood friend, Jimmy, to meet his new bride. When she appears, however, the couple is shocked and mayhem ensues. Who is this mystery woman, and why does she have such a magical hold on the two men? Side-splittlingly funny, the ending will keep you guessing until the last minute.

Sunday, June 28

• Awards Ceremony – Refreshments at 6pm, Awards at 7pm

Participation and Entry in The NVTA Festival (2009)

For your information, the forms for the 2009 NVTA 27th One-Act Play Festival are provided here in MS-Word format.

• Entry Form
• Play Notification Form
• Playbill Information Form
• Production Requirements Form

Due dates are as follows:

• Feb 27, 2009 – Entry Form and $50 entry fee/production
• Mar 20, 2009 – Play Notification
• May 8, 2009 – Program Information
• May 21, 2009 – Production Requirements Form