Coe College National Playwriting Contest and Festival announces winner
The Coe College Theatre Arts Department is proud to announce the winner of the Coe National Playwriting Contest and Festival. “30 Seconds” by Jayne Deely took first place from nearly 100 scripts submitted across the country. Established in 1993, Coe’s National Playwriting Contest and Festival is led by Assistant Professor of English Kate Aspengren and celebrated every two years.
“30 Seconds” is a play about memory and challenges the audience to look at who is believed and why. Deely’s play will be presented in collaboration with Mirrorbox Theatre in a free virtual reading on Friday, March 19, at 8:00 PM. Associate Professor of Theatre Arts
Dennis Barnett will direct the reading composed of Coe students and actors from New York, St. Louis and Cedar Rapids. Deely will be in virtual residence for the week as a guest artist in playwriting classes and virtual workshops.
Deely is a Puerto Rican queer playwright and performer and a proud native of Queens, New York. They are a 2021 O’Neill National Playwrights’ Conference and Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival semifinalist and a 2020 finalist for the UCF Pegasus Playlab. Deely is a recipient of two playwriting awards from the Kennedy Center and is a proud member of Actors Equity. They have worked with companies such as Theatreworks Palo Alto, Aurora Theatre, BRAVA Theatre, CBS and the New York Unit of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower.” They are producing an audio play titled “Waycross” for Indiana University’s 2021 At First Sight New Play Festival. Deely is in their second year as an MFA playwriting candidate at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Visit www.mirrorboxtheatre.com/out-the-box to register for the “30 Seconds” reading on March 19.