Taking Stock to be Read in Berea

Award winning playwright Trish Ayers’ most recent full-length play Taking Stock will have the first public reading as the featured November 5th Berea Arts Council literary program. Ayers was awarded a 2009 Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW) Individual Artist grant to edit Taking Stock, a play that explores the issue of horse slaughter and the impact of hurt turned inward.

The reading will be an opportunity for community members to be a part of hearing for the first time these new characters come to life. Audience members who volunteer will read different character parts and a short question and answer session will take place following the reading.

Ayers originated the Kentucky Women Playwrights’ Seminar, which has twice been funded by the KFW. She is the co-artistic director and resident playwright of Mountain Spirit Puppets with her husband Shan Ayers. Her plays have toured the United States and Japan. She has been a guest artist at Iowa State and Western Illinois University. Her plays have won numerous awards from the Appalachian Writers Association and were a finalist in the 2009 Heartland Ten-Minute and One-Act Play Festival. Judging Quilts, one of her ten-minute plays was recently selected to be a part of the Kentucky New Play Festival to be held in Bardstown in November. She is a member of Dramatists Guild and 517 Playwrights, and the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc. a non-profit supported in part by the Kentucky Arts Council.

Couple to Headline New Plays Festival

Berea residents and playwrights Shan and Trish Ayers, are headlining this year's Kentucky Festival of New Plays November 18-21, 2010 at The Bardstown Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road in Louisville, KY.

Trish Ayers, author of the 10-minute play JUDGING QUILTS in this year's festival is co-artistic director and resident playwright of Mountain Spirit Puppets with her husband Shan Ayers. Her plays have toured the United States and Japan. She has been a guest artist at Iowa State and Western Illinois University and has won numerous playwriting awards from the Appalachian Writers Association and was a finalist in the 2009 Heartland Ten-Minute and One-Act Play Festival.

Ms. Ayers originated the Kentucky Women Playwrights’ Seminar, which has twice been funded by the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW). Currently she is editing the full-length play, “Taking Stock” with funding from the KFW Individual Artist Grant. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild.

Shan R. Ayers, author of the play DRAPED IN HONOR, holds an MFA and is a Professor of Theatre at Berea College. He teaches courses in design, script analysis, theatre history and playwriting. Twice he has taught playwriting for the Kentucky Institute for International Studies summer program in Japan and will be again in the 2011 summer program in Italy.

The Kentucky Festivla of New Plays is in its second year; in 2009 the festival was known as the Midway Festival of Plays and was produced at the Thoroughbred Communuity Theatre, Midway, KY.

And the Winners are...

The winners of this year's 2nd Annual 517 Playwrights 10-Minute Play Contest are:

Draped in Honor -- Shan Ayres-- Berea, KY
Judging Quilts -- Trish Ayres -- Berea, KY
There is No Dash -- Rose-Mary Harrington-- Ashland, OR
Nephrology -- Sara Ilyse Jacobson -- Baltimore, MD
There is No Wrigley Field -- Bill McCann, Jr. -- Lexington, KY
Digging for Diamonds -- George McGee and James Hamblin, Georgetown, KY
No More Than Reason -- Louise Penberthy -- Seattle, WA
Linda and Kirk -- Brian Walker -- Louisville, KY

The winners will be produced November 18 -21, 2010 at The Bards Town Theatre, 1801 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY as part of the Kentucky Festival of New Plays sponsored by the Kentucky Playwrights Workshop, Inc.