Gloria Peter Theater Series Press Release:
27 April 2009
Aurora, NY: The Morgan Opera House is pleased to announce the winners of this year's
Gloria Ann Barnell Peter Playwright Competition. The competition received exceptional response
from a broad geographical area which resulted in the judges naming co-winners and an honorable mention. Co-winners are William Duncan for
"Trust" and Michael Vukadinovich for "Trog and Clay." Each will receive a prize of $500. Honorable mention was given to
Steve Gold for "A Credit to His Race." He will receive $100.
Michael Vukadinovich is a writer and director living in Los Angeles who has been the recipient of numerous awards for screenwriting and
playwriting, including the 2007 Samuel Goldwyn Screenwriting Award and the 2005 Sidney Sheldon Playwriting Award. His work has been staged
off-Broadway, in California, Florida, and New Mexico, and internationally. He is a graduate of Loyola University of Los Angeles and holds a
master of fine arts degree in playwriting from UCLA.
William Duncan, a retired teacher from Woodburne, NY, has had short fiction and poetry published in several literary periodicals in the
Northeast. Though "Trust" is his first play, the 1960's protests against the corporate order and their parallels in the muckraking
movement, compelled him to begin its research nearly thirty years ago. He is a native of New York City with a master's degree in sociology
from New School University.
As a stipulation of the competition, the co-winning plays will be produced at the Morgan Opera House. "Trog and Clay," -an imagined
history of the electric chair, Edison and Westinghouse's "war of currents" and two foolish dog catchers- will be performed November 21
at 8 and November 22 at 2 PM this year. "Trust," which depicts the struggle between Ida Tarbell and J. D. Rockefeller will be produced as part of the MOH's 2010 season. Siouxsie Grady, assistant professor of theatre at Wells College, will direct both plays.
The friends and family of Ms Peter -a playwright, actress, and lover of history- established a fund to underwrite the
GABP Playwright Competition to honor her memory and to encourage the writing and production of
theatre art. The announcement of the next competition and its criteria will come in the fall of 2010.
The Gloria Peter Theater Series was established in 2006.