April 20, 2022

"Jorge Hosts Chanukah a play by Jonathan Josephson, provides both laughter and tears as the plot reveals Jorge, a Mexican-American, who is a recent convert to Judaism. In his new status, Jorge must both please his Jewish wife Hannah, and appease his father Mr. Salas. The resolution of the two cultural traditions provide challenges to father and son, while at the same time reveal the common humanity which these two cultures share."

May 2, 2021

There were 372 short plays entered in this year’s competition—from 38 states and 8 countries. There are twenty winning plays that will be published in Volume 5 of the Stage It! Ten-Minute Plays series. The book release will coincide with the festival—copies will be available for purchase during the event or from online retailers. This year’s winning playwrights hail from around the globe, from Florida to New York and across the nation to California, plus the countries of Iran and Japan. The Stage It! Festival will feature 10 of the winning plays, which will be performed throughout the weekend.

October 8, 2020

The long-awaited performance of the International Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival will finally be presented on Oct. 9-11 at Centers for Performing Arts Bonita Springs’ Moe Auditorium, 10150 Bonita Beach Road. Originally scheduled for one-week after the state’s pandemic lock down in March, plays from around the world will be performed for a live audience — social distancing required.

September 9, 2020

The Centers for the Arts Bonita Springs presents its Staged Reading Series on Friday, Sept.11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Moe Auditorium & Film Center at Center for Performing Arts campus, 10150 Bonita Beach Road.
 

The series showcases six new short plays from four local and three international playwrights hailing from Canada, Dubai and Los Angeles: Guy Newsham, Alex Broun and Jonathan Josephson. The four Southwest Florida playwrights featured include: Don Fox, Shawn Ryan, Leslie Sanderson, Deborah Williams. "Our local playwrights are solid comedic writers," said Frank Blocker, the Centers' film and theater director.

April 21, 2022

“Jorge Hosts Chanukah, a play by Jonathan Josephson, provides both laughter and tears as the plot reveals Jorge, a Mexican-American, who is a recent convert to Judaism. In his new status, Jorge must both please his Jewish wife Hannah, and appease his father Mr. Salas. The resolution of the two cultural traditions provide challenges to father and son, while at the same time reveal the common humanity which these two cultures share."

November 25, 2020

Original Works Publishing has announced the publication of SEVEN DEADLY TENS (A Sinful Collection of Short Plays) by Jonathan Josephson. Each of the internationally-produced, award-winning 10-minute plays was inspired by one of Dante's Seven Deadly Sins, playfully mixing stories of humanity at its worst with wry humor. The plays have been performed by professional theatres, community theatres, colleges and high schools throughout the U.S., Canada, and Ireland.

October 5, 2020

The long-awaited performance of the International Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival will finally take place October 9-11 at Centers for Performing Arts Bonita Springs. Originally scheduled for one-week after the state’s pandemic lock-down in March, plays from around the world will be performed for a live audience—social-distancing required.
 

This year, the competition grew to include 346 entries from around the world for publication in the fourth volume in the Centers’ series Stage It! 10-Minute Plays books. Ten short plays will be performed each night with subjects varying from alien invasions to jewelry heists, from drunken nights on park benches to film noir on stage.

July 7, 2020

When live theatre can return (safely and appropriately), it will start small— smaller audiences, small casts, shorter rehearsal periods, short lengths of shows, shorter lengths of runs… it’s all going to smart tiny and grow from there. And when things do get back up and running, outdoor venues are going to have a leg up on institutional theatres for any number of reasons.

So… with all of those parameters at play, what will be the first wave of plays produced post-lockdown? Small-cast, short plays that are designed to be performed outdoors. Unbound Productions has been developing plays for this very specific form since 2009— plays adapted for our flagship project Wicked Lit have sold out venues across Southern California and around the world with site-specific (as well as theatre-bound) productions. Since 2017, Stage Rights has represented 17 of the plays that Unbound has developed in three handsome volumes, all of which deliver spine-tingly chills adapted from timeless stories.

Here are spotlights on a handful of plays that could very well headline your return to live theatre:

​

THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW

adapted from Washington Irving by Jonathan Josephson

​

This lyrical, loyal adaptation of Washington Irving’s quintessential ghost story has been wowing audiences and showcasing young actors since 2009. The play tells the story of the passionate school teacher Ichabod Crane, his unrequited love for the fair Katrina Van Tassel, his rivalry with the brutish Brom Bones, and his unfortunate encounter with the region’s most fearsome specter— the Headless Horseman. And if you want to know the real story of what happened that fateful night Ichabod met his end, the extended Legend(s) of Sleepy Hollow reveals all as narrated by Ichabod’s loyal horse, Gunpowder.

Not only does the play’s setting and style lend itself perfectly to an outdoor location, but its inherent theatricality has also led to sold-out professional productions from coast to coast and led school productions to national championships and other recognitions both stateside and in the UK.

Read the rest of the article here.

photo by Daniel Kitayama

May 6, 2021

The Fifth Annual Stage It! Ten-Minute Play Festival will be held May 14-16 at the Performing Arts Center, Moe Auditorium & Film Center, 10150 Bonita Beach Road. All tickets $25. During the Stage It! Festival, eight directors utilizing local talent will present plays of varying styles including comedy, historical, drama, farce, existential and noir. Subjects involve divorce, the right to vote, death, stardom, self-discovery and drunken shenanigans. After the performances, actors, directors and attending playwrights are available for a brief talkback.

November 16, 2020

Original Works Publishing has announced the publication of SEVEN DEADLY TENS (A Sinful Collection of Short Plays) by Jonathan Josephson. Each of the internationally-produced, award-winning 10-minute plays was inspired by one of Dante's Seven Deadly Sins, playfully mixing stories of humanity at its worst with wry humor. The seven plays have been performed by professional theatres, community theatres, colleges and high schools throughout the U.S., Canada, and Ireland.

October 5, 2020

The long-awaited performance of the International Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival will finally be presented on Oct. 9 – 11 at Centers for Performing Arts Bonita Springs.
 

Originally scheduled for one-week after the state’s pandemic lock down in March, plays from around the world will be performed for a live audience — social-distancing required.  

This year, the competition grew to include 346 entries from around the world for publication in the fourth volume in the Centers’ series Stage It! 10-Minute Plays books. Ten short plays will be performed each night with subjects varying from alien invasions to jewelry heists, from drunken nights on park benches to film noir on stage. 

The playwrights that will be presented are:

• Jonathan Josephson of Pasadena, California (Dostoevsky)

• Joe Carlisle of Croton-on-Hudson, New York (First Contact)

• Martin Keady of London, United Kingdom (Last First)

• W. L. Newkirk of Celebration, Florida (Locker 142)

• Craig Moeckly of White Bear Lake, Minnesota (No Honor)

• Judy Klass of Nashville, Tennessee (Private Dick)

• Colleen Nicole O’Doherty of Omaha, Nebraska (Ricky and Ready)

• Michelle Pascua of Celebration, Florida (Single Rider)

• Marc Paykuss of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts (The Tinker Bell Situation)

• Lindsey Brown of Auckland, New Zealand (Unreasonable Situations)

March 6, 2020

The 4th Annual International Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival has announced the winners for this year's publication, now in it's fourth volume. The unique competition began with open submissions in October, garnering 346 plays from around the world, and a unique adjudication process. The top 25 plays have been selected for publication in Stage It! 4: 10-Minute Plays. The book is released in conjunction with the Festival weekend, March 20-22, where many of the plays will be produced.
 

More than 30 states were represented in the playwrights' submissions as well as plays from Australia, Canada, France, Luxembourg, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The adjudication process included 31 judges, most coming from Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and Florida, with others from Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, with three coming from Canada and one from Australia. All judges have had professional experience as actors, playwrights, directors, producers, designers, critics, writers and/or filmmakers. Each play received a critique from each judge and is then rated. The top-scoring 20-25% became semi-finals. The plays are re-read by judges who have not seen them to help determine the finalists.