2014 RECIPIENTS

Frank’s Lucky Strike by Dan Socolov
First Prize for Excellence in Playwriting
Dan Socolov and family
Frank, charming and wounded, and running from a family tragedy, returns home with a “can’t miss” business plan, to reopen a family owned bowling alley.  Hope is further sparked by a chance meeting with Alice, an old high school friend.  On the eve of his dream business deal, Frank's partner betrays him.  Crestfallen, Frank turns to Alice, but will his drive to attain his dream cost him his last chance at love? 
Going to Viet Nam by Victoria Sullivan
Citation for Excellence in Playwriting
Anne Newhall, Victoria Sullivan and Jim Nugent
Set in the present time, the play follows the lives of two characters: Laura, a sophisticated woman at mid-life, who goes to Viet Nam decades after the war as a tourist; and Teak, a Viet Nam vet who has never regained his sense of equilibrium.
Laura meets the mysterious Steven, whose business pursuits might be both dangerous and illegal, and the young “working girl” Mai Ling.  She steps eagerly into their world, risking her safety to pursue an idealistic mission; while back in her small upstate New York town, Teak is stuck in the past -- a victim of PTS and his own perverse nostalgia. Laura and Teak’s twin trajectories collide in the conclusion of the play when her destiny substantially changes his.
HE WHO LAUGHS by Ian Cohen
Citation for Excellence in Playwriting
Ian and Barbara Cohen with Deb Armelino
Loosely based on The Binding of Isaac, HE WHO LAUGHS tells the story of the
Wells Family, and what happens when their love of God is challenged by the very God that has blessed them with great prosperity.
Sheila Wells receives an unexpected visit from her husband’s long-time friend and trusted employee, Sam Kessler, who tells her that while supervising deliveries at Wells Trucking, her husband collapsed on the loading dock, wailing, shaking and muttering words that made no sense. Seventeen year-old Zach, joining his father on his weekly Sabbatical, has no idea what his father plans to do, or his role in it.
What follows is a seminal, human story, as Al and Zach journey towards The Spot, and Sheila and Sam set out to stop Al from doing the Unthinkable.