2025 Spectacular Tournament of Playwrights
Saturday, Nov. 15 | 7:00pm ET (6:00pm CT)
The Acorn is thrilled to announce the return of our highly anticipated 10-minute playwriting competition, The Spectacular Tournament of Playwrights! The Top 5 plays will be performed by local theater groups on our stage – and the audience will vote for the winner!
Meet the 2025 Finalists:
Whitney Jarrett
Disposable Black Girlfriend
Silver Spring, Maryland
Whitney Jarrett is a first-gen, African American writer born in Maryland and raised by immigrant parents. She began her writing journey as a child, keeping meticulous journals and writing short stories in the margins of her class notebooks. She then went on to attend the University of Maryland in 2014, where she became a member of Kreativity Diversity Troupe. There, she fostered her love of writing and performing, specializing in stand up comedy. Upon graduation, she began her blogging journey and now runs “What Whitney’s Watching” on Substack, where she pens film reviews and personal essays. In 2025, her short play, “Trouble on Georgia Ave” was featured in Powerstories’ Voices of Women Theatre Festival.
Johanna Beale Keller
Amicably, Kinda Sorta
Syracuse, New York
Johanna Beale Keller is a Syracuse, NY-based playwright, lyricist and filmmaker whose stageplays have been in the past two seasons by NYC’s Gallery Players, NYC’s Rogue Theater Festival, Lake Tahoe’s Valhalla, Houston’s Theatre Southwest, and Long Island’s Theatre Three, among many others. Playwright awards have included the 2023 Central PA Playwright Award, 2023 SC Theatre Association Award, and the Atlanta Fringe Festival 2023 Critics Award. Her rom-com short has been screened at film festivals in New York, Mississippi, and Atlanta, and won the Oniros Best Comedy and the Magnolia Best Family feature. She is a member of PEN America, Women’s+ Playwrights @ Speranza Theatre, Armory Square Playwrights. She is a graduate of the three-year program in Dramatic Writing from the Dramatists Guild Institute Program, and advanced degrees in literature and music.
Linda LaRocque
The Magic Kingdom
South Haven, Michigan
A multi award-winning playwright, Linda LaRocque's plays have been produced in both professional and civic theaters throughout the United States. Her dramatic works are published by Playscripts, Pioneer Drama Service, Smith and Kraus, Next Stage Press and Art Age Publishing Company. She has written numerous short stories for various publications including Guideposts, Signs of The Times and many of The Chicken Soup for The Soul series.
Donald Loftus
Joey
New York City, New York
Donald Loftus is a playwright, librettist and lyricist living in New York City. Donald’s work has been presented on stages across The United States, The United Kingdom, India, Australia, and Sweden. He won the W. Keith Hedrick National Playwriting Award and The Southeast Texas Festival of New Plays. His full-length drama, "THE SPRINGVALE ARMADILLO, " was chosen for The Cincinnati L.A.B. Theatre's New Works Festival, and his musical, "ILLUSION, " was selected for the Colorado New Musical Festival and The Emerging Artist Theatre Festival held in N.Y .C.. His full-length psycho-drama, "PER, " was produced by the Theatre Lab Theater Project in Tampa, Florida. His many one-acts have been presented at over one hundred festivals nationwide. He is proud to serve on the Board of Directors of The Dramatist Guild Foundation.
Barbara A. Silverstone
The Cat Sitter
Paris, France
Barbara A. Silverstone was born in Los Angeles and now lives in Paris, where she works as a French-to-English translator and writes plays on the side. Two table reads of her two-act play Mother, I Could Kill You were performed by actors from the Loft Ensemble theater company in Los Angeles via Zoom during the 2020 lockdown. Mother, I Could Kill You placed in the semi-finals of the 2021 ScreenCraft Stage Play Competition and was a finalist for the 2025 Stanley Drama Award. Ms. Silverstone has a B.A. in French Literature from Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she also minored in Theater, and a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the Université de Rennes II in Rennes, France. She is a member of the Playwrights’ Center theater organization and the Dramatists Guild of America.
With the help of local theater groups and directors, we will be bringing the finalists’ work to life on The Acorn stage, bringing in stage talent from our corner of Southwest Michigan, and concluding with an audience vote to determine which one of these playwrights will win our 2025 competition!
RESERVED SEATING DONATION option includes a $30 tax-deductible donation to The Acorn and guarantees you a seat with optimal sightlines. $30 Donation per ticket holder in your group.
All ticket purchases are non-refundable, non-exchangeable.
The Acorn is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
