Winners of the 2025 8 Tens @ 8 Festival Announced!

Jonathan Carter Schall in the play Come On, Ref from 8 Tens at 8 2024 — A toast to the winners!

The Actors' Theatre International Short-Play Contest again reached 300 entries, with scripts coming in from playwrights from across the country and beyond. Our dauntless reading committee of theater professionals chose the 24 finalists from the great selection of plays we received this year. These were then given to this year's directors to make their 16 choices for the Festival. The remaining 8 finalists will be presented as staged readings in our "Best of the Rest" event in March.

This year's line-up features work by some familiar names who have been part of 8 Tens @ 8 in the past, as well as talented playwrights new to the Festival. All judging of the scripts is anonymous. The reading committee and the directors review blind copies, so they don't know the identity of any of the playwrights when they are reading the plays and making their selections.

These are the 16 plays that will be produced for the 8 Tens @ 8 Festival in January/February 2025:

AILEEN by Barbara Anderson, directed by Brad Roades

BALLOON RELEASE by Keith Whalen, directed by Jonathan Carter Schall

THE BARGAIN by Terry Amara Boero, directed by Kathryn Adkins

CLOSING TIME by Ellen Abrams, directed by Marcus Cato

DUELS AND DETENTES by Marguerite Arbogast, directed by Scott Kravitz

EXIT STRATEGY by Jim Larson, directed by Sally Bookman

FACING THE DEMON by Jennifer Alexander, directed by Miguel Reyna

FIRE ESCAPE by Sache (Steven) J. Satta, directed by Brian Spencer

GIVER OF BEAUTY by Randy Warren, directed by Karin Babbitt

GROUCHY by Matthew Moore, directed by Jim Schultz

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY by Rich Rubin, directed by Evan Hunt

THE NEAREST FAR AWAY PLACE by Aleks Merilo, directed by Cathy D. Warner

THE SCORPION DANCE by Jon Haller, directed by Andrew Davids

SPEED DATING by Curt Strickland, directed by Kathie Kratochvil

THE USE OF CHILDREN by Jeffrey Davis, directed by Steven Capasso

THE WAKERS by Guy R. Newsham, directed by Christopher Peak

And these remaining finalists will be part of The Best of the Rest:

DARK MATTER by Donald Loftus

IT'S JUST A PAPERWEIGHT by Jerry Metzker

PT by Marc Littman

STOCKED by Serena Norr

THE TAROT READER by Jenny Boyle Penny

TELL ME by Gwen Mansfield

VASHTI: FALLEN QUEEN by Sydney Green

WHY WOMEN LIVE LONGER THAN MEN by Marjorie Williamson

Rebecca Haley Clark and Cathy D. Warner will direct Best of the Rest in March 2025.

Auditions for 8 Tens 8 will be held on September 29 and 30, with callbacks over the next four evenings. Visit the Auditions page for more information. Tickets for the festival will go on sale the day after Thanskgiving. This year, you will have an option to include The Best of the Rest staged readings of the runners-up with the festival package deal for only $5.