December 14, 2012 by Mark H. Anbinder
Social justice is the theme of a one-act play contest being held this fall by the Homecoming Players. The Ithaca-based theatre company will produce a trio of winning plays in late February, selected from submissions received by the December 31st contest deadline.
The Homecoming Players is the brainchild of Rachel Hockett and Arthur Bicknell, who both moved back to Ithaca after reuniting at an Ithaca High School reunion in 2009. The pair founded the Homecoming Players to produce "an eclectic mix of classic and new plays" in "our arts-rich Ithaca community."
The social justice theme is "broad enough to include civil/LGBT rights, bullying, ageism, sexism, genderism, racism, classism, and any number of additional isms too small for the map," say organizers. Playwrights who wish to submit plays for consideration must currently reside in Tompkins County, and plays should have a run time of about 25-30 minutes and a cast of no more than four. Full contest details are on the Homecoming Players web site.
Auditions to cast the winning plays will be held in mid-January, and the plays will be performed on February 22nd and 23rd. Contest judges include playwright and Cornell drama faculty member Austin Bunn, Ithaca Fringe Festival artistic director George Sapio, Hunter College faculty member and Cornell theatre history and dramatic literature alumna Lynne M. Kemen, Theatre Incognita artistic director and Cornell alumnus Ross Haarstad, and Mr. Bicknell.
This summer, the Homecoming Players staged a reading of "8," a play by Dustin Lance Black chronicling the constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8. Just days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear the current challenge to the case.
