Summer Theater Lab 2021: Frost & Dodd Student Play Festival

The 2021 Frost & Dodd Student Play Festival

August 6-8, 2021
The Bentley Theater
Staged reading performances
FREE; tickets required, via the Hopkins Center Box Office

The winning one-act plays of the 94th annual Frost Student Playwriting Competition and the 46th annual Ruth & Loring Dodd Student Playwriting Competition will be performed in the Bentley Theater the weekend of August 6-8, 2021. Click here for more information about the Frost & Dodd Competitions.

THE 2021 RUTH AND LORING DODD PLAYWRITING COMPETITION WINNER

Umma
by Stella A. Asa '22
directed by Olivia Scott Kamkwamba '13
Friday August 6 & Sunday August 8 at 8 pm

'Umma' is the story of a young woman trying to open a record store. It's the summer of '76 in Brooklyn, New York and the times are hot, but she's in love.


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Stella Asa '22

Stella A. Asa '22 is humbled and grateful to be recognized with this award. It is an honor to be nurtured and creatively supported within the Theater Department, and Stella continues to look forward to cultivating and collaborating with new and inspiring projects on campus. This award recognizes the hard work, dedication, passion, and utmost respect Stella has for the craft and production of theater, and reinforces her belief that her efforts to pursue theater in her post-grad career are not just a dream but a heartening reality. 

 

 

THE 2021 ELEANOR FROST PLAYWRITING COMPETITION WINNERS

The Other Girls, by Mia Nelson '22
&
Seismic Change, by Katie Devin Orenstein '22
Saturday August 7 at 8 pm & Sunday August 8 at 4 pm
directed by Jamie Horton

The Other Girls
The story of three college-aged women grappling with the intimacy and intensity of female friendships. 'The Other Girls' investigates indistinctions in adoration, admiration, and attraction.


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Mia Nelson '22

Mia Nelson '22 is a junior from Denver, CO studying English and Human Centered Design. Her writing has been recognized by The Poetry Society of London, Princeton University, The Atlanta Review, Columbia College Chicago, & The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. At Dartmouth, she is a Teaching Assistant for Engineering 12, a former Historical Accountability Fellow, and a leader in the Dartmouth Outing Club, where she chaired Cabin and Trail and Women in the Wilderness. Previously, she received honorable mentions in the 2020 Eleanor Frost Playwriting Contest and for the English Department's Ralston Prize and American Academy of Poets Prize.

Seismic Change 
Zoe wants someone, literally anyone, to take her seriously. Gideon wants to avoid another PR disaster. Ken doesn't want to retire. Helen got her PhD but maybe hates science now? Jason was not told public speaking would be mandatory. Isaiah simply wants the dioramas to come alive at night. It's just another stress-free day at the natural history museum! The museum will definitely not be underwater by 2050 if nobody does anything about climate change. Absolutely not. Everything's fine! Make sure to visit the gift shop before you leave! 


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Katie Orenstein '22

Katie Devin Orenstein '22 does not exist. Hopefully she will get to live her life in rehearsal rooms. Dartmouth theater: Into the Woods, Debutantes From Hell, Meat, Little Circles, Family Style. Love to Nick Gutierrez, Mia Nelson, Hannah Gellman, Zea Eanet, Caroline Wong, Bill Nisen, Carl Thum, Kirk Chuggins, Johanna Evans, and her amazing non-theater friends. Special thanks to Stuart H. for being rich and interesting, and to Sean Paul for inventing temperature in 2006 - vital, for a play about climate change. Katie would never have made it to the museum without Patrick, and wouldn't have stayed without Nancy and Phil. She is grateful for the wisdom of countless AMNH staff including Jacklyn Grace Lacey, Susan Perkins, Leah Golubchick, Christina Wallace, Rebecca Oppenheimer, Erin Chapman, and Roderick Mickens.