2017 Festival Results

Monologue Competition

3rd Place Best Monologue – SPC Jake Jansen, Wiesbaden

2^nd Place Best Monologue – Tom Navo, Kaiserslautern

1^st Place Best Monologue – Becky Connolly, Grafenwoehr

One Page Play Competition

Special Achievement Award in Youth Writing – Rosario Brockhausen for “I Don’t Know”

Best Featured Performance – Jenny Oberschlake in “Friends”

Best Supporting Actor – Steve Thornburgh in “Visit to the Mound”

Best Supporting Actress – Rebekah Mason in “The Run”

Best Youth Performance – Astrid Bruce in “Nothing Ever Changes”

Best Actor – David Burmedi in “No Soul”

Best Actress – Anna Christiansen in “On the Way to the Beach”

Best Director – Katie Wellman, “Empty Nest”

Outstanding Moment – Victoria Hanrahan & David Schwab holding Yoga pose in “Empty Nest”

Special Achievement Award in Youth Writing – Dean Bruce for “The Future”

Audience Choice Award for Best One Page Play – Steve Thornburgh for “No Soul”

3^rd Place Best One Page Play – Cheryl Navo for “Bob’s Collection”

2^nd Place Best One Page Play – Jane Porto-Turner for “The Run”

1^st Place Best One Page Play – Dan LaMorte for “New Skin”

The 2017 Festival Showcase presentation was the adult drama "Lobby Hero" presented by Arts in the Armed Forces on Saturday, Oct. 7 at 1900 hrs. 

 

       PLEASE NOTE: "Lobby Hero" contains adult language and mature content and is not suitable for those under 18 years of age.

 

Arts in the Armed Forces Information links:

AITAF Website

AITAF Facebook Page

AITAF's 2013 Performance Grafenwoehr, Germany

Adam Driver discusses Arts and the Armed Forces

• Official Photo Gallery
• Videos - One Page Plays and Awards Ceremony
• Stars & Stripes News Coverage
• IMCOM Europe Public Affairs Coverage

2017 Festival & Workshop Schedule

All events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

FRIDAY, OCT 6

Paul Bourne is the Artistic Director of the Menagerie Theatre Company, Cambridge, England and of the international Hotbed Festival of New Writing. Former Artistic Director of Center Stage, New York. Paul was the first Judge of the One Act Play Festival in 1996 and has been involved in Army Entertainment for many years running master classes and supporting programs in Europe and The US. He has directed dozens of community theater productions and over seventy professional productions in ten different countries. His work has ranged from productions on the fringe to major international productions. 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). He is a Teaching Fellow at The University of Cambridge and on the faculty of Skolkovo University in Moscow. Paul is the creator of the US Army/IMCOM-E 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 Anny CYSS at all US Army Garrisons in Germany and Italy.

Dörte Jensen is professional stage combat instructor and fight director. She fell in love with idea of stage combat during medical school and went off to train with the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat and the Society of American Fight Directors and is among the first teachers for Stage Combat Deutschland, an organization she co-founded. By day an associate managing editor in medical publishing, by night and on weekends it is Dörte's mission to keep actors safe and tell stories through fights. Over the past 13 years she has taught for the German amateur theater association, various drama schools and at workshops in Banff, Canada, and Chicago, Il. Dörte won a 2017 US Army Entertainment TOPPERS award for her stage combat choreography for A Streetcar Named Desire at the Stuttgart Theater Center. Her fight direction credits include a variety of German community and professional theaters as well as The Stuttgart Theatre Center, The Ramstein Razz Ma Tazz Family Theater and the Alliance Players Brunssum in the Netherlands.

Vic Phillipson has worked for Army Entertainment for 25 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 for the annual IMCOM Europe One Act/One Page Play Festivals and the Tournament of Plays (TOPPERs) Awards Show and Ceremony for over 20 years. When not consulting for Army Entertainment, Vic works as a Port Agent for European Cruise Service at points of call for cruise ships all along the southern coast of Norway. He also spends a great deal of time chasing his ill-behaved dog, Rocky, through the Norwegian wood and fjords.

Kathy Pingel was the Director of Education and Youth Programming at the Des Moines Community Playhouse; Artistic Director of the Kate Goldman Children's Theatre and is now a free-lance stage director and teacher. She holds a BA in theatre from Eastern Michigan University where she studied with Virginia Koste and a MA from Northwestern University in Performance Studies where she worked with Frank Galati. She also holds an MA in teaching from Northwestern As Education Director of the Des Moines Playhouse, Kathy piloted many new programs including classes for students on the autism spectrum, a repertory company for senior radio performers, and workshops to teach creative problem-solving to corporate teams. She also created Spotlight: Literacy, a program designed to help teachers expand language arts activities with trips to the Goldman Theatre Kathy has adjudicated at the state and regional, national and intemational levels for the American Association of Community Theatre. She was an adjudicator for the first Army Entertainment One Page Play Festival in 2015.

Suann Strickland has been the musical director/pianistconductor for KMC Onstage's productions of Fiddler On The Roof, Young Frankenstein and Mary Poppins and Ramstein Community Theater's production of Beauty and the Beast, as well as musical consultant for several other productions. As a musical director, pianist-conductor, arranger and composer, she has performed in over 70 different productions in professional, university and community theaters in Chicago, North Carolina, Georgia, New Mexico, Russia and now Germany. She holds Bachelor degrees in sociology and piano performance and a Master's in piano from Florida State University with a double emphasis in Choral Conducting. She has studied vocal pedagogy and choral conducting for the past 8 summers in Italy with conductors from around the world, She has served as concert accompanist and adjunct music faculty for several universities including New Mexico State University, Mercer University, and Georgia Southwestern State University, conducted church and community choirs, developed and directed three community music schools for children ages 4-18, and written curriculum materials for using music in early childhood education. Here in Germany, she has founded two German-American Friendship Choirs: the Otterberger Singing Squirrels (ages 6-9) and Otterberger Singing Oaktrees (ages 10-18), as well as founded and produced the Kinder Helfen Kindern Benefizkonzert Project to support a children's orphanage in China for the last 6 years. She lives in Otterberg with her husband, CMSGT and professional trombonist, Charles Anderson, and their daughter, Francesca.

Ron Ziegler is the Field Services Director for the American Association of Community Theatre. He directed many productions for theatres across the US, most frequently for the Des Moines Playhouse, where he served as Associate Director. He was the first Artistic/ Managing Director for the Des Moines Playhouse's Kate Goldman Children's Theatre. Ron founded and managed the Iowa Fringe Festival and was the first executive director for Orlando (FL) Repertory Theatre. He is a past president of the American Association of Community Theatre, was named an AACT Fellow, and served twice as facilitator for the National Artistic Directors Conference As a stage director, his credits include Hairspray, Becky 's New Car, Legally Blonde, The Who's Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? among many others. Ron has adjudicated many state and regional theatre festivals across the US including the 2007 National AACTFest in Charlotte, NC. He also served as adjudicator five times for the Army One Act Play Festival, twice for the Tournament of Plays (TOPPERs) and one of the first judges of the One Page Play Festival.