2021 US Army Entertainment One Page Play Festival and YouthFEST '21

The 2021 One Page Play Festival and YouthFEST '21 Awards

Army Europe Entertainment "Hero" Awards

YouthFEST '21 Awards

• YouthFEST '21 Outstanding Group Performance: The Ansbach Youth Theatre Troupe. (Troupe includes youth from USAG Bavaria and USAG Ansbach.)  Emmeline Forsberg, Jillian Forsberg, Emily Jones, Adrian Nash, Talia Pegg, Zoey Stubbs and Peris Young.
• YouthFEST '21 Outstanding Solo Performance: Keira Hogan. KMC Onstage, Kaiserslautern.

2021 One Page Play Festival Awards

• Outstanding Monologue: Margi Ritscher, Ansbach
• Outstanding Achievement in Performance Awards: 

1. Jeanne Ragonese, Sigonella Players

2. Tom Rees, Kaiserslautern

3. Margi Ritscher, Ansbach Terrace Playhouse

• Outstanding Theatrical Moment:  Lane Fox for the reveal in "Revealing." KMC Onstage
• Outstanding Achievement in Creativity:  Marissa E. Blake for multiple performance and directing roles. Vicenza's Soldiers' Theatre.
• Outstanding Achievement in Youth Performance:  Simon Bingham. Stuttgart Theatre Center.
• Outstanding Achievement in Direction:  Arden O'Neill and Audrey Phillips. KMC Onstage. "Soccer Moms."
• Outstanding Achievement in Youth Writing: Arden O'Neill and Audrey Phillips. KMC Onstage. "Soccer Moms."
• Audience Choice Award Outstanding One Page Play: "Ping" by Brett Harwood. SHAPE Players Performing Arts Center
• Judges' Choice Award Outstanding One Page Play:

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1.      A Good Day written by Jeanne Ragonnese . Featuring Sylvia Rausch, Arden O’Neill, Aubrey Rahe. 

2.      Standard Of Care written and directed by Lane Fox. Featuring Camryn Rahe, Simon Bingham and Erin Markus. 

3.      Will You Drive the Bodies? Adapted by Margi Ritscher and Katherine Willis , Featuring Margi Ritscher. Directed by Katherine Willis. 

4.      Soccer Moms by Arden O’Neill and Audrey Phillips with Marissa Blake, Sylvia Rausch, Alicia Mangers, Aubrey Rahe, TJ and Eve Jackson. Directed by Arden O’Neill and Audrey Phillips.

5.      Place by Amy Ennis. Directed by Marissa Blake featuring Kamrin Markus, Arden O’Neill, Eve Jackson and Margi Ritscher.​​​​​​​ 

6.      Ping by Brett Harwood featuring Tom Rees, Marissa Blake, Julie Phillips and Alicia Mangers.

7.      Identical Ideas by Camryn Rahe, featuring Marissa Blake and Eve Jackson, directed by Camryn Rahe.

8.      Billy  written and performed by Tom Rees.

9.      The Show Must Go On by Katherine Willis, featuring Marissa Blake, directed by Katherine Willis.

10.  Revealing by  Amy Ennis, featuring Lane Fox and Alicia Mangers, directed by Brett Harwood.

11.  Dragatha Christie adapted and performed by Simon Bingham, directed by Lane Fox

12.  Blue Moon adapted  and performed by Jeanne Ragonese.​​​​​​

Friday. Oct. 8:

Google Map

The Amelia Earhart Playhouse. USAG Wiesbaden, Germany.

The SHAPE Performing Arts Center. USAG Benelux, Belgium.        

KMC Onstage. USAG Rheinland Pfalz/Kaiserslautern, Germany.        

The Stuttgart Theater Center. USAG Stuttgart, Germany.       

The Grafenwoehr Performing Arts Center. USAG Bavaria/Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The Ansbach Terrace Playhouse. USAG Ansbach, Germany.

The Soldiers' Theatre. USAG Italy/Vicenza, Italy.

Paul Bourne is the Artistic Director of the Menagerie Theatre Company, Cambridge, England. He is also the artistic director of the international Hotbed Festival of New Writing and a former Artistic Director of Center Stage, New York. Paul is a Fellow at The University of Cambridge and a faculty member at Skolkovo University in Moscow. His international directing career has spanned across Europe and he has directed over seventy professional productions in ten different countries. His work has ranged from productions on the Fringe to major international productions in St. Petersburg and London's West End. Highlights include the world premiere of Tennessee Williams’ Guignol in New York and the world touring production of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged (out of Washington DC). Paul was a Judge at the very first US Army One Act Play Festival in 1995. He has been involved in Army Entertainment for many years running master classes, directing and supporting programs in Europe and The US. Paul is the creator of the US Army/IMCOM Europe Entertainment performance workshop, “It’s No Joke! Act Against Bullying.” This workshop addresses the issues of bullying among youth and is being presented by Entertainment Branches in cooperation with US Army CYSS at all US Army Garrisons in Germany and Italy.

Andrea Huber is an internationally renowned performer and director. She is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University and an Irene Ryan National Acting Award Winner. As an opera singer and musical theatre performer, she has performed at the Krefeld-Mönchengladbach Opera House, the Graz Opera House, the Prague State Opera and many other major opera venues in Europe. She has also performed in South Africa, Norway, Greece and the US. She performed in Kiss of the Spiderwoman in Baden bei Wien, Austria, where she is currently appearing in the musical, Nine.  She presented her one-woman Kurt Weill show in Graz, Austria in March 2020. Andrea directed a highly successful production of The Marriage of Figaro for the Boston Opera Collaborative in Feb. 2020. She also directed Oliver! and Sweeney Todd at the former Roadside Theater in Heidelberg, where she also performed her one-woman cabaret shows to rave reviews. Andrea was an adjudicator and workshop leader for the 2015 and 2019 US Army One Page Play Festival and the 2020 TOPPERs.

Vic Phillipson has worked for Army Entertainment for 31 years.  He was an Entertainment Director in Giessen from 1992 until 1995, and then in Heidelberg from 1995 until 2000.  Since moving to Norway in 2000, he has worked as a technical consultant for the program. He has served as the Technical Director and Stage Manager for the annual IMCOM Europe One Act/One Page Play Festivals and the Tournament of Plays (TOPPERs) Awards Show and Ceremony for over 22 years. When not consulting for Army Entertainment, Vic produces plays and musicals in Norway and works as a Port Agent for European Cruise Service at points of call for cruise ships all along the southern coast of Norway.

Kathy Pingel - Until her retirement in 2015, Kathy was the Director of Education and Youth Programming at the Des Moines Community Playhouse for ten years. She also served as Artistic Director of the Kate Goldman Children's Theatre. She holds a BA in theatre from Eastern Michigan University, a MA from Northwestern University in Performance Studies and an MAT from Northwestern. Kathy has adjudicated at the state and regional, national and international festivals for the American Association of Community Theatre. In 2017, she was named an AACT Fellow and in 2019 was given the prestigious Art Cole Lifetime Achievement Award. Since leaving the Des Moines Playhouse, Kathy has directed and taught in Kentucky, Oregon, Michigan, Iowa, Florida, Oklahoma and Ansbach, Germany. Kathy’s newest role is Dramaturge for AACT’s NewPlayFest.  

Ron Ziegler resides in North Port, Florida and is a freelance director and teacher. He recently retired from his position as Festivals Coordinator for the American Association of Community Theatre. Ron served on staff at the Des Moines (IA) Playhouse as Associate Director where he was the first Artistic/Managing Director for the Kate Goldman Children's Theatre.  While in Des Moines, he founded and managed the Iowa Fringe Festival. He is a past President of the American Association of Community Theatre, was named an AACT Fellow, and has adjudicated state and regional theatre festivals across the US and many times for US Army Entertainment. Ron and his spouse Kathy Pingel were awarded the 2015-16 Cloris Leachman Award for Outstanding Direction for their co-direction of Des Moines Young Artists Theatre's production of The Hobbit, and co-directed Peter and the Starcatcher and Girls' Weekend for Ansbach Terrace Playhouse.

Amy Barron Smolinski is an award-winning actress, director, and voice artist who has recorded over 100 audiobooks on Audible.com.  She has been involved in community and professional theatre since childhood, and she has been teaching theatre for all ages since 1996.  At KMC Onstage, she has directed Greater Tuna, The Woman in Black, The Lost Language of Wifflesplatch and The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Amy also teaches Beginning and Advanced Directing Workshops.  She has appeared onstage in Noises Off, Love Letters, Mary Poppins, The Guys, Young Frankenstein, and Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.  She is the mother of four boys and the wife of an Army Reservist stationed in Germany. 

Marissa Blake runs the dance program at the Soldiers' Theatre on Caserma Ederle (Vicenza, Italy) and was one of the choreographers for their 2020 musical, The Addams Family. She studied dance and piano since the age of 5, was dance captain for two of her alma maters, taught studio and competitive dance for over 5 years, holds a BFA in Interior Design, graduated from Boston University in May 2021 with her MS in Project Management, and owns her own design company that specializes in Graphic and Interior Design; All's Well That Ends Well Designs. One of her favorite dance moments was the weekend she spent dancing with Twitch and Allison Holker (Boss) from So You Think You Can Dance. Marissa believes that one of the best ways to express feelings is through movement.

     How about you try and fit it all onto a single page of paper? Create something that is more than a just a sketch – a mini play - that entertains, challenges and inspires… 

    Any genre, any subject matter (following usual standards of decency), any number of characters – let your imagination fly…just try and respond to one of the two themed titles.

     The first and most important step of the workshop is for writers, but we also need directors and actors to bring it all to life.

• Writers: what do YOU want to write about? Fire up your imagination and make it happen – all on one page. (Age: 13 years and up)
• Actors don’t have to learn scripts but will get very familiar through the weekend rehearsal process so that on Sunday afternoon they can help bring the scripts to life. (Age: 10 years and up)
• Directors – we will need you to help bring this work to life working alongside writers and the acting Ensemble – what you do to create an inspiring production. (Age: 13 years and up)

• Twelve plays will be selected for performance

• The script must fit printed onto one standard page (font min 11 point)

• Scripts should endeavor to be a play rather than ‘just a sketch’

• Scripts can be any genre – including use of music or singing as required (but cannot just be a song!)

• Scripts can be any number of performers (from 1 – 12 )

• Scripts can feature narration if required - but ‘action’ should be primary in the production.

Twelve plays will be selected to be performed. 

The twelve plays will be allocated amongst a directing and acting ensemble (Saturday afternoon) and rehearsed (Sunday). 

The ‘best play script’ will be voted for by the audience. Other awards will be given by adjudicators (acting and directing awards).

    This year, the Army Entertainment YouthFEST will feature talented youth from across Europe in an exciting Talent Showcase on Saturday night, Oct. 9 at KMC Onstage.

   Youth (7 to 18 years of age) can show off their talents in group or solo numbers as singers, actors, dancers, musicians, acrobats, magicians or any other category. 

    Those interested should contact their local or nearest Army Entertainment program to enter. The Entertainment staff will help performers prepare for the talent showcase. YouthFEST Entry forms are available from Entertainment or Theatre Staff or in the link below.

2021 YouthFEST Talent Showcase Entries:

• Kamrin Markus. KMC Onstage, Kaiserslautern.
• Sophia Duggan and Ida Ellison. The Stuttgart Theatre Center.
• Sophie Ellison. The Stuttgart Theatre Center.
• Audrey Phillips, Camryn Rahe and Isobel Harre. KMC Onstage, Kaiserslautern.
• Eve Jackson. The Soldiers' Theatre, Vicenza, Italy
• Keira Hogan. KMC Onstage, Kaiserslautern. (Outstanding Solo Performance Award)
• The Ansbach Youth Theatre Troupe: Emmeline Forsberg, Jillian Forsberg, Emily Jones, Adrian Nash, Talia Pegg, Zoey Stubbs and Peris Young. (Outstanding Group Performance Award)

• US Army Public Affairs News coverage. 15 Oct. 2021
• US Army Public Affairs News coverage. 31 Aug 2021
• Official Photo Gallery
• US Army Entertainment LIVE - live feed of the festival
• US Army Entertainment Europe Facebook page