VIRTUAL FESTIVAL OF SHORT PLAYS 2024

We continue to be committed to creating opportunities for all voices to be heard. With this in mind, we are thrilled to be producing our fourth annual Virtual Festival of Short Plays, spotlighting stories written by people of color.


THe Playwrights


ATC is thrilled to announce the four playwrights we will be spotlighting throughout the month of February!

Each selected playwright will receive a stipend to further their development on the selected play, made possible by V (formerly Eve Ensler), N. Rose, and Katherine Kline.

The selections are:

Scabs by Adrienne Dawes

Good Grief by Marcus Harmon

Multiple Loads by Nicholas Pilapil

La Mer by Ayibatari Owei

Adrienne Dawes (she/her/hers) is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter originally from Austin, TX. Her plays include AM I WHITE (B. Iden Payne Award, David Mark Cohen New Play Award), TEEN DAD, HAIRY & SHERRI; and THIS BITCH. Adrienne received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and studied sketch & improv at the Second City Training Center in Chicago. Her work has been presented by or developed with Theatre Bedlam, New Harmony Project, The Fire This Time Festival, Theatre Lab at FAU, Queen City New Play Initiative, Stages Repertory Theatre, Teatro Milagro, National Black Theatre, and English Theatre Berlin, among others. Adrienne recently staffed on a limited series with Hulu/ABC Signature (EP: Ellen Pompeo).

Marcus Harmon is a playwright, actor, and singer from Columbus, Ohio, now based in Brooklyn, New York. He has had multiple award-winning plays staged in New York. Chain Theater (20th Anniversary, One-Act), NY Theater Festival (Edin. Full-Length), the Off-Broadway Downtown Urban Arts Festival (2022- 20th Anniversary / 2023 The Dandiest Duo 3rd place finalist), 2023 Queens Play Festival, 2023 Think Fast Theater Festival Finalist, 2023 Two Dogs Theater, Best Play Winner (The Dandiest Duo). He was selected as a recipient of the 2021 NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) grant for playwriting. His One-Act play, The Dandiest Duo, has been accepted into the 2024 Chain Theatre Festival. @marcus_harmon.

Nicholas Pilapil is a Filipino American playwright. His plays include The Bottoming Process (world premiere with IAMA Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Ignition Festival of New Plays) and if all that You take from this is courage, then I've no regrets (winner of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival). His work has also been developed with Geffen Playhouse, Playwrights Foundation, American Stage, Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, The Workshop Theater, and The Fountain Theatre, among others. Nicholas is a member of the Asian American theatre collective Artists at Play and is an alum of The Writers’ Room at the Geffen Playhouse, IAMA Theatre Company’s Emerging Playwrights Lab, The Vagrancy Playwrights Group, and artEquity.

Ayibatari Owei is an Illinois-born, Maryland-raised early-career playwright. She received her BA in Theatre at Smith College, where she won The Denis Johnston Playwriting Award, The Gertrude Posner Spencer Prize, and The Mary Augusta Jordan Prize. On a regular day, Ayibatari can be found cracking jokes and singing along to ABBA.


WATCH OUR february artist spotlights


Join ATC in learning about playwrights Nicholas Pilapil, Adrienne Dawes, Ayibatari Owei, and Marcus Harmon!

Contribute the development of new work and emerging artists! Every dollar goes back into our programming to support artists.

Abingdon Theatre Company’s 4th Annual Virtual Festival of Short Plays is brought to you by the generous donations of V (formerly Eve Ensler), N. Rose, and Katherine Kline