The Players Theatre Newswww.theplayers.org
838 North Tamiami Trail • Sarasota, FL 34236 • 941.365.2494 Fax: 941.954.0282
August 7, 2014
THE PLAYERS THEATRE ANNOUNCES 2014 NEW PLAY FESTIVAL WINNER
Sarasota–The Players Theatre is pleased to announce the winner of their 13th annual playwright festival, Bernie Yanelli. His short play Not Our Time emerged triumphant following the week-long Players New Play Festival which consisted of 5 competing plays performed “reader style” on The Players mainstage. These five plays were judged and chosen by a panel of judges from over 30 submissions. The 4 other plays competing were One Magic Moment by Marvin Albert, Grandpa Knows Best by Ron Pantello, Hot Air by Mark Kenneally, and Anatomically Speaking by Llywelyn Jones. Written by Yanelli and directed by Carole Kleinberg, Not Our Time is a coming-of-age story set in the rural south of 1969. A young African-American football star must choose between what he wants for himself and what his best friend and mentor want for him.
Not Our Time will now be fully cast, directed and produced as part of The Players Summer Sizzler Series at the end of the August of 2015.
A seasoned local playwright, Yanelli was co-winner of “The Plays The Thing” Festival in 2007 and winner in 2010. He has also had three plays produced at Theatre Odyssey’s Ten Minute Play Festival. Yanelli is a teacher of history and economics at St. Stephens Episcopal School in Bradenton and is happily married with two sons. Bernie comments on his recent win, “I was thrilled to have one of my plays presented this year and thoroughly impressed by both the professionalism of the event and the quality of the plays included. I want to thank Jeffrey Kin and The Players Theatre for dedicating their time and resources each year to develop new plays along the Gulf Coast, and acknowledge my indebtedness to the Sarasota Area Playwrights and Carole Kleinberg for continually challenging me to revise and improve upon my play.”
Jeffery Kin, Artistic Director of The Players Theatre explains, “This was a banner year for the festival, all the plays had excellent readings and the choice of picking just one winner was a challenge. Not Our Time is an inspirational story of overcoming adversity in the south during the desegregation of the 1960’s. It is powerful, telling and yet, at times an amusing look back at how far we have come in the last 50 years. We are proud to be producing this work next August!”
Open submission for the next Players New Play Festival will begin in January of 2015 with the festival being held July 20-25, 2015. www.theplayers.org
The Players Theatre
838 N. Tamiami Tr., Sarasota FL 34236, 941-365-2494, Fax: 941-954-0282
www.theplayers.org. Box Office: Mon-Sat, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and one hour prior to curtain time. The Players Box Office is located on Tamiami Trail between 10th Street and Blvd. of the Arts.
