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Powerstories Theatre, in collaboration with Outcast Theatre Collective, is proud to present the inaugural Voices of Truth Theatre Festival, showcasing local, national, and international casts to a global audience. The festival is 100% virtual to ensure your safety.

Each play is debuting in one of three ways, depending upon the playwright’s wishes: virtual live-streamed from the Powerstories’ stage, live via Zoom, or a prerecorded theatre experience. We are excited for you to experience a diverse selection of topics ranging from a woman discovering a comet, an eating disorder, a murder trial, sexual abuse to gun violence and mental health, and ten other conversation-starting topics.

The festival runs from Wednesday, March 10 through Sunday, March 28, 2021.

Sit back in your comfy seat, pour a glass a wine, and enjoy all of our virtual performances from the comfort of your home.

BUY YOUR FESTIVAL PASS

Individual tickets $10.

Festival Play Selection Schedule

Click here to buy individual $10 tickets or click to buy All Acess 16-Show Festival Pass for $99

(EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: Save an additional $20 off Festival Pass through February 14). 

  • Wednesday, March 10 – 8 pm
    Listen… Can You Hear Me Now? By Gloria Rosen (New York)
    Deaf parents. A hearing child. A woman on the edge of two worlds tells the story of finding her own voice.
    A talkback will follow on Zoom with playwright and other experts
  • Thursday, March 11 – 8 pm
    Trifles By Susan Gladspell – Project Curated By Sheri Whittington (Florida)
    A homicide that took place over 120 years ago in rural Iowa, stands today as a cautionary tale. Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is based on the true court case of the murder of a farmer on December 2, 1900 in Indionola, Iowa. Glaspell covered the case and the trial as a reporter for Des Moines Daily News.
  • Friday, March 12 – 8 pm
    Miss Mitchell’s Comet By Dwayne Yancey (Virginia)
    The astronomical world was shocked in 1847 when a new comet was discovered not just by an American amateur, but by a young America woman with no official credentials of any kind. Maria Mitchell went on to become America’s first female astronomer — this is her story.
  • Saturday, March 13 – 8 pm
    A Conversation with Myself By Julliette Moore (Florida)
    A Conversation with Myself depicts a young trans woman’s struggle to free her true self from the prison of the closet only to discover that closet is the very thing that has protected her. It is a nuanced look at what it means for transgender people to find themselves and find their place in the world.
  • Sunday, March 14 – 8 pm
    The  Very Last Dance of Homeless Joe By Rich Courage (New York)
    “Nobody wants to be alone…”
  • Thursday, March 18 – 8 pm
    Scenes from the Outcast By Outcast Theatre Collective (Florida)
    Outcast welcomes you to experience an evening of original, short scenes created by the collective as we explore various scenarios experienced by our artists and invoked through the use of an arsenal of techniques called “Theatre of the Oppressed,” created by Augusto Boal.
  • Friday, March 19 – 8 pm
    Dancing Among the Wildflowers By David John Preece (New Hampshire)
    In the play, Dancing Among the Wildflowers, Lyndon Johnson deliberating masks his failing health from his wife, Lady Bird, so that she fulfills her responsibilities and potential.
  • Saturday, March 20 – 8 pm
    A Necessary Conversation By Peter Nason & Deborah Bostock-Kelley (Florida)
    Written by two teachers, one current and one a past educator, A Necessary Conversation is an award-winning, two-part production that takes an unflinching look at mental health, bullying, gun violence in high school and its aftermath. The show features 47 REASONS TO LIVE, a tale of the inner workings of a potential school shooter and 11:11 explores the adult and teen survivors left behind.
    A talkback will follow on Zoom with playwrights, cast, crew, and noted bully-prevention, mental health, and gun violence prevention experts
  • Sunday, March 21 – 8 pm
    No Know Nothing By Elizabeth Indianos (Florida)
    The Goose-stepping bully, WARMAN, aims to extinguish self-expression and pull the plug on all our cultural artifacts—but can he? Cave Girl knows, that even if all were destroyed, we will go on, continue to create, it’s in our human nature to do…

    Survivor By Ellen Kaplan (Massachusetts)
    A little girl tries to escape a raging, mentally ill mother. She fights back; she can’t protect herself; she’s harmed; she harms herself. She is raped. Over decades, she heals herself, in body and heart.

  • Wednesday, March 24 – 8 pm
    Outcast Interactive Forum By Outcast Theatre Collective (Florida)
    Outcast invites you to join them in a theatrical, interactive experience as an original scene is explored using the the technique of Augusto Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed.”
  • Thursday, March 25 – 8 pm
    The Drowning Girls By Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson, and Daniela Vlaskalic – Project Curated By Clareann Despain (Florida)
    The Drowning Girls is a haunting play about three brides who share two things in common: they all married the same man, and they are all dead. Emerging from their clawfoot bathtubs, Bessie, Alice and Margaret share the evidence against a murderous man in a chilling ghost story that recounts the shocking crimes.
  • Friday, March 26 – 8 pm
    Stat Geek in Natick By Bretton Reis (New Hampshire)
    “Stat Geek in Natick” tells the story of a young sports talk radio enthusiast. As his relationship with Boston’s most popular show blossoms, his battle with a vicious eating disorder intensifies.
  • Saturday, March 27 – 8 pm
    Classic Six By Leigh Flayton (New York)
    In 1993, Frances works as a live-in nanny/researcher for Frank and Patricia McGuire in their Classic Six Manhattan apartment. Twenty-five years later, she returns for a visit and, as the evening unfolds, Frank and Patricia question her motives: Is she merely curious to revisit the place where she learned hard truths? Or does she plan to expose what she found out about The McGuires all those years ago?
  • Sunday, March 28 – 8 pm
    45 – Project Curated by Pamela Bulu, complete list of playwrights in the program (Florida)
    45 minutes of crowd-sourced reflection, ranting, and a touch of chaos inspired by the outgoing 45th president.

    In A Moment By T.R. Butler (Florida)
    In a Moment – This piece illustrates the social impacts of life in 2020 with the polarization of healthcare and highlights a loving couple and their personal experience with the pandemic through a chance encounter. The story evolves in reverse moving from the end to the beginning.

Festival Playwrights

Deborah Bostock-Kelley is a multi-time playwright whose plays have been seen across stages in Tampa. She received the inaugural 2019 Tampa Bay Theatre Festival Denise Deneen award for her work in theatre and a 2017 recipient of Theatre Tampa Bay’s Jeff Norton Dream Grant. With the grant, she produced her original gun violence production with Peter Nason, A Necessary Conversation at the Straz Center which went on to win Regional Broadway World’s 2018 “Best Actor” and “Best Actress” Awards and is nominated for Regional Broadway World’s “Best Original Script of the Decade.” The new, expanded production, written after the Stoneman Douglas school shooting, is debuting at the festival. She is also a theatre reviewer for Broadway World – Tampa Bay, Creative Loafing, The Free Press, and Groove Magazine, a reporter for Tampa Bay News and Lifestyles Magazine, and past journalist for The Tampa Tribune, and owns a creative services agency since 2005. She is a published author of a children’s early reader and teen YA fiction anthology.  Deb is a past educator, Florida native, and graduate of the University of Tampa. www.anecessaryconversation.website

Pamela Bulu is a graduate of the University of South Florida and a member of the Outcast Theatre Collective. She is a tech worker by day, student by night, and artist twenty-four seven. Her artwork, ranging from paintings to relief prints, has exhibited in shows all around St. Petersburg. She is excited to use the medium of performance to explore the sentiments of her community. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Theron (T.R.) Butler brings a professional performer expertise and a corporate business mindset to the collective. Theron serves as Treasurer for the collective and Secretary on the board for the Arts Council of Hillsborough County. He is a trained actor in the methods of Stanislavsky and holds a B.F.A. in Acting from Ithaca College. Nominated for local awards, including Best of the Bay in 2018, T.R. has performed with Disney, Busch Gardens, and Kings Dominion. Since moving to Tampa in 2013, he has been actively performing with local companies including Stageworks, Tampa Rep, American Stage, and Powerstories.  What do I want the audience to be talking about after viewing: = Daily, we are faced with many different choices that can lead in any direction. We can forget how we impact or affect others. Small or large, our actions resonate and have consequences.

Rich Courage is currently a Peer Counselor at Fountain House, a clubhouse for folks recovering from mental illness. He lives in Washington Heights, otherwise known as Manhattan’s Dominican Republic.  He sings blues and folk rock.  “I love me my bacon cheddar burgers.  My beagle Snoopy passed away in 2019 and I still cry every so often when I look at his smiling face.  I’ve quit smoking many times. I go from thin to overweight, every day it fluctuates (That’s an Ed Sheeran line.) My favorite painting is Starry Night.  And there’s a lot more to me.”

Clareann Despain holds a Ph.D. in Dramatic Arts from The University of California, Santa Barbara. Directing credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, Green Day’s American Idiot, Cabaret, Proof, Hamlet, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Topdog/Underdog, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, On the Verge, Wonderdog!, Pale Idiot, I Sea, Below the Belt, Summer Shower, and 8 Life Lessons from Mort and Mindy.  Dr. Despain has  worked as a director and dramaturg on a number of new scripts. In 2014, Clareann directed 3 short plays for Tampaworks at Stageworks in Tampa, FL. As part of Risa Brainin’s LaunchPad program at UCSB, Clareann served as the assistant director for the world premiere of Sheri Wilner’s Kingdom City. Clareann also directed 8 Life Lessons by Jackson Warkentin for UCSB’s 2007 New Plays Festival, produced by Naomi Iizuka. .With one of her favorite collaborators, playwright Lou Clark, Clareann worked on two original scripts for young audiences: Wonderdog! and I Sea, the latter of which won an ACTF/Kennedy Center award.  Clareann has also worked in theater management for several companies including: the Straz Center and Next Generation Ballet in Tampa; Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre in New Orleans; the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) & Lamplighter’s Music Theatre in San Francisco; PCPA Theatrefest in Santa Maria, CA; Nevada Dance Theater in Las Vegas, NV; and Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City, IA.  Dr. Despain has taught at the University of South Florida, Hillsborough Community College, University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of New Mexico. Subjects taught include acting, directing, script analysis, theatre history, public speaking, and stagecraft. Regardless of whether the context is explicitly educational, Dr. Despain delights in mentoring young theatre artists.

Leigh Flayton is a former magazine editor whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Salon and The Huffington Post, among other publications. She is also a playwright, and, in 2015, Cherry Lane Theatre hosted a reading of her first play, The Generator, as part of its TONGUES reading series. In 2018, Too Close to Home was presented in an industry reading and starred two-time Tony winner Judith Light in the lead role. The play was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference that same year. The Voices of Truth Festival marks the debut of Leigh’s newest play, Classic Six. She lives in New York City.

Elizabeth Indianos is a playwright and artist who creates large-scale, award-winning Public Art projects, noted for, “enhancing the quality of life, exhibiting long-term vision & innovation.” She was one of the 5,000 design teams in the world to contribute a proposal for the World Trade Center Memorial.  Early in her career Elizabeth received a Mobil Grant for the exploration of new materials. Over the past thirty years her diverse and varied work has developed in this same spirit of exploration through a wide variety of themes and technology. Many of her Public Art projects received Planning Commission Awards of Excellence for works that, “Enhance the quality of life, exhibit long-term vision, innovation, design quality and environmental sensitivity.”  Elizabeth’s writings include award-winning multidisciplinary plays and scripts about artists—and what it means to be one. Stories like LIBERTAIRE and Waiting for Guacamole and NO KNOW NOTHING are all her personal statements about the concepts of art and artists. Each work is a focus on three personal visions, that of the lone artist (Ezmarelda in Waiting for Guacamole); the artist as a famous figure,  (Auguste Bartholdi, artist of the Statue of Liberty) in LIBERTAIRE and the creative Cave Girl who instinctively prevails in NO KNOW NOTHING.

Ellen Kaplan is a Professor of Theatre. Fulbright Scholar, actress, director, playwright. Ellen directs and performs internationally: recent directing credits include: The Magic Flute, Curious Incident, Turn of the Screw, Private Lives); recent acting: La Nieta del Dictador; La razon blindada. Guest Professor at Tel Aviv University; the University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest; University of Costa Ricq, and Distinguished Artist at Hong Kong University, where her play Livy in the Garden was performed at the Robert Black Theatre. Other plays include Sarajevo Phoenix, based on interviews with Croat, Slav and Bosniak women; Cast No Shadow, about the legacies of the Holocaust, premiered at the Jewish State Theater of Bucharest ; Pulling Apart, about the 2nd intifada, won a Moss Hart Award; Someone Is Sure to Come, about inmates on Death Row, was presented in NYC and published in the Tacenda Literary Journal. Her book chapter on creativity and trauma was published in Performing Psychologies (2019). Ellen works with underserved and at-risk groups, adjudicated teens; literacy training; and women in prison. She is developing a piece about Kurdish women in Iraq and Syria. www.ElizabethIndianos.com

Julliette “Jules” Moore is a theatre student at the University of South Florida. A self-described artist-activist, Jules is passionate that her art addresses the harder pills to swallow. Advocating for mental health issues and the queer community is especially important to Jules. A Tampa native, Jules is enraptured by our city and is determined to capture its charm in her work. Despite Jules’s recent entrance to the theatre industry she has made quite a splash here at the collective. Her recent work includes the first production of Orlando by Helen Tennison and Stealthcare: Transphobia in Telemedicine with the collective.

Peter Nason is an actor, director, and theatre teacher, who has appeared in dozens of productions around the country, helmed several films, and directed over thirty plays. His love of the theatre, and his passion for the craft of acting and directing, has led him to reach hundreds of Florida teenagers to help make the stage their home. A Pasco County educator for the past fifteen years, he has just started a new theatre program at the Cypress Creek Middle School Conservatory of the Arts in Wesley Chapel. A graduate of the University of Alabama and the Scuola Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy, Peter is an award-winning playwright and has been one of the reviewers for Broadwayworld.com since 2014. Peter resides in Wesley Chapel, Florida with his beloved Boston Terrier, Ike.

Outcast Theatre Collective works to enhance theatrical diversity within the Tampa area through the facilitation and professional development of artists from marginalized communities.  Outcast enhances theatrical diversity within the Tampa area through the facilitation and professional development of artists from marginalized communities.

David John Preece has had several productions of his plays and screenplays, including Charles Dickens’ Ghost Stories (winner of Best Play by the New Hampshire Theatre Awards 2008), The Picture of Dorian Gray (winner of ten New Hampshire Theatre Awards 2011 nominations, including Best Original Play), The House of the Seven Gables (winner of the Best Original Play by the New Hampshire Theatre Awards (2009), and Tender (nominated for Best New Play by the Los Angeles Weekly 2004 and (winner of Best New Play by the New Hampshire Theatre Awards 2007). His other plays have received recognition, including According To John (finalist in the Kentucky Theatre Association’s Roots of the Bluegrass New Play Contest), The Unicorn from the Stars (winner of the Vermont Playwright Award 2020), and Dancing Among the Wildflowers (winner of the Best One-Act Play with Mixing it Up Production’s 2020 Spring Emerging Playwrights Contest). His plays, Charles Dickens’ Ghost Stories, The House of the Seven Gables, The Scarlet Letter, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, are published. Besides being a produced and published playwright, he has had several scripts optioned over several years.  His short film, Lunch with Eddie, which he wrote, directed, and produced, was shown at over thirty international film festivals and won several awards, including Best Short Film and Best Director. He has received education and theatre/film training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California – Los Angeles (screenplay). He currently resides in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Bretton Reis is a freelance theatre artist based in New Hampshire. Over the past seven years, he has worked on nearly 200 productions as a lighting designer, actor, or director. Some favorite regional credits include directing “Marat/Sade” at the Player’s Ring, portraying Tony Wendice in “Dial M for Murder” at Hackmatack Playhouse, and designing the lighting for “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at SRT. He holds a triple-major B.A. from UVM and a MSc with Distinction from the University of Edinburgh.  Bretton Reis wrote “Stat Geek in Natick” to honor one of his best friends and to raise funds for eating disorder awareness.

Gloria Rosen is an award-winning playwright and actor. Her autobiographical solo show, Listen…Can You Hear Me Now? is a personal recollection of being a hearing child of deaf parents.  It was performed virtually for the Marsh Theater’s Solo Arts Heal, the Rochester Fringe and the Marsh International Solo Festival. “Listen…” recently had its International debut at the Campus St Jean, Alberta Canada; had the honor of being asked to  perform at St. Ann’s Church for the Deaf in NYC ( the first  Church for the Deaf  in the US, founded by The Rev. Thomas  Gallaudet ) and enjoyed a sold-out run at the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC where it was  awarded Best Autobiographical Script. Gloria has appeared in numerous plays by award-winning playwright Duncan Pflaster, most recently “Lights and Noise and Bees and Boys” for the Red Fern Theatre Company. She originated the roles of Emily in “Hidden Beauty” at the NY EstroGenius Festival; Bubby in “Bubby’s Shadow” at Planet Connections, and The Mother in the Indie Film – “How to Break Up With Your Mother” which has been screened at numerous  venues throughout  the US. She also participates in the Effective Arts program as an actor using improvisational techniques to assist the training of clinical professionals in the field of organ donation. Gloria has performed at the Actor’s Studio, the Samuel French Festival, Manhattan Rep and Primary Stages. She can be seen in numerous College Humor episodes. The goal and ongoing vision of Listen…Can You Hear Me Now?  has been to help bring the Deaf, Coda and hearing worlds closer together in an alliance of mutual trust and understanding For further information: www.listenshow.com

Sheri Whittington is thankful to have been involved in the magic of performing arts since childhood, and understands the power that early exposure to theatre can have on a lifelong love of the arts. She believes the lessons and skills learned through participation in the performing arts will serve the students throughout their lifetime. Sheri has a BA from USF majoring in Theatre Performance, and has continued her education with focused study in Film & Television, serving as an On-Set Tutor and Dialect Coach for area film and video productions. Sheri’s passion is teaching and inspiring others to fulfill their performance dreams which led to founding and serving as the Artistic Director of the Looking Glass Theatre. Her directing credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Nunsense, Tongues, Schoolhouse Rock, Trifles, Diva, Dy, DB & Me, Grease, Evita, & The Sound of Music. Other highlights include directing the elaborate staged reading of Lysistrata in collaboration with Gorilla Theatre and the Lysistrata Project for Peace. Sheri has performed on-stage, in leading roles with Bay Area productions that include Fiddler on the Roof, Talley & Son, Psycho Beach Party, Postcards, As You Like It, Return to the Forbidden Planet, and West Side Story. Sheri will appear in the next Powerstories Theater’s production this spring, and is also privileged to be working with Girlstories at the PACE Centre for Girls in Tampa. Sheri served for five years as the Artistic Director for the Young Dramatists Project with Gorilla Theatre, and as the Manager of Community Relations with the Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Sheri has instructed and coached over 300 performers, teaching acting with a local Casting Director, the Young Actors Studio at USF, Summerplay, MJPAA, ArtsCorp, YMCA, and the Patel Conservatory. She is very proud of her students, several of which are currently touring and appearing on stage, in film, and television (including Desperate Housewives, Hairspray, The Shaggy Dog, American Dreams, CSI and Nip Tuck). Sheri is delighted to have the opportunity to continue to work with area students by returning to the classroom at MJPAA.X

Dwayne Yancey is a playwright and novelist from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. His scripts have been produced in 47 states, 6 Canadian provinces and 17 countries. A critic in Australia once called his work “blood-curdlingly amazing.” Find more at dwayneyancey.com. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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