Entertaining Evening of 10-Minute Plays

The inaugural “Midway Festival of Plays” to be held Thursday Oct. 8 through Sunday Oct. 11, 2009 at the Thoroguhbred Community Theater located at 127 East Main Street in Midway, KY.

The festival is the brainchild of Jim Betts and is being produced by Thoroughbred Theatre in association with The Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. and 517 Playwrights. 517 Playwrights solicited the scripts for its annual competition–conducted between February and July 2009–and chose the winning entrants.

The seven 10-minute plays that will be performed were selected from over 100 submissions. The winning playwrights hail from east coast to west coast, as far north as Canada, and spots in between. Their dramatic topics range from the poignant and humorous to the irreverent and farcical. With casts of characters ranging from 16 to 65 years old, “The 10-Minute Play Festival” promises something for everyone.

The directors, designers, actors and crewmembers of the “Midway Festival of Short Plays” hail from Lexington, Woodford County, Georgetown and Berea, and include experienced, well-known members of the Central Kentucky theatre community.

Performances of the seven plays begin on Friday Oct. 9 at 8pm with additional showings on Saturday evening Oct. 10 (8pm curtain) and a matinee on Sunday Oct. 11 (curtain at 2pm).

“We’re thrilled to host the inaugural “10-Minute Play Festival,” said TCT manager Jim McDaniel. “It’s symbolic of exactly the kind of stage productions we aim to bring to the community: inventive, entertaining, and a perfect marriage of local and international talent. We’re sure this will be an annual event the whole town can look forward to,” McDaniel added.

“I was inspired to produce a short play festival after participating in a playwriting course,” said Betts, “and started looking around for a place to stage it. The McDaniel's were enthusiastic about it, and offered their theatre as a venue. It seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, so we ran with it.”

Tickets are available by calling the theater at (859) 846-9827. Seats are $10 except on Student Night when they are $5 with valid student ID. For additional information about the TCT visit the website at www.thoroughbredtheatre.com.