Short plays finding a big venue 15 Minute Festival runs through Aug. 23

BELFAST – Black crows are falling from the sky.

Emma, reading a magazine, and Grant, clutching a cocktail, calmly watch them plop down to Earth from their front porch.

Helicopters circle overhead. F-14 fighter jets scream across the sky. Tanks roll up and fire on them.

One of these people figures the end is near while the other lights out for the territories.

And it all happens in a play that’s less than 15 minutes long.

“A Raft Made of Grass” is one of seven short plays that make up the 15 Minute Festival being held Thursday through Saturday at the National Theater Workshop for the Handicapped in Belfast.

Written by Bill Lattanzi of Cambridge, Mass., the play is one of more than 200 submitted for the second annual festival of short plays. That’s twice the number of submissions the festival drew last year, according to festival co-founder and director of development David Patrick Stucky of Belfast.

“Not only is it gratifying to be receiving so many more scripts than the first year, but the quality continues to rise,” Stucky said.

Thanks to the Internet, plays were submitted from as far away as Bulgaria, Japan, Monaco, the United Kingdom, Canada and nearly every state. New England playwrights, however, dominate the winning scripts.

Other winners whose play will be performed during the three-day event are Tim Collins of Belfast, Andrew Clark of New Bedford, Mass., Kathleen Klose of Newburyport, Mass., Dennis Jones of Miami, Martin Zuckerman of New York and Lissa Brennan of Durham, N.C.

Judges who chose this year’s scripts included Doug Hughes, former artistic director of the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Conn., Anita Steward, artistic director of Portland Stage Co. and Mark O’Donnell, a New York-based playwright who won a Tony this year for co-writing the book for the Broadway hit musical “Hairspray.”

O’Connell is scheduled to attend the festival along with actress Margot Kidder, who has fully recovered from the injuries she suffered in a car accident after last year’s festival. Best known for her roles in the films “Amityville Horror” and “Superman,” Kidder will present the awards to winning playwrights again this year.

Kidder was leaving town on Aug. 25, 2002, driving north on Route 7 bound for Montreal when her GMC Yukon slipped on freshly laid pavement, wet from rain the night before. The vehicle rolled over, and Kidder sustained a broken pelvis in the accident.

She returned home to Livingston, Mont., three weeks later, praising Belfast residents for their support and kindness following her accident.

Kidder will introduce each evening’s performance at the festival that will include productions of the seven winning plays and musical entertainment by the Divine Maggees, a female duo based in Rockland. A multimedia presentation of art work from throughout the state will be accompanied by an original score by Blue Hill pianist Paul Sullivan.

While the winning scripts will get the full production treatment, the dozen honorable mentions and runners-up will be staged as free workshop readings from 11 a.m. and noon and from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Belfast Maskers Theatre on the waterfront.

In addition to receiving more entries this year, the festival also has raised enough money from grants foundations and individual contributors that organizers will be able to award cash prizes to winning playwrights.

“The ability to award prizes to the playwrights in only our second year, is an example of the level of commitment needed to locally produce a festival of national consequence here in Belfast,” said festival co-founder Larraine Brown of Belfast.

Support for the event increased significantly over last year, according to Stucky. Grants from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, Wallis Foundation, Maine Community Foundation’s Wal-do County Fund, Theodore Arts Opportunity Fund and Unity Foundation were awarded to this year’s festival.

Brown, who has performed in professional theater outside of Maine as well as with the Belfast Maskers has said that she sees theater in general and the festival specifically as a viable tool for building community life. She believes that Belfast, a community whose art scene has burst into full bloom in recent years, is the prefect setting for the event.

“There are a lot of exciting possibilities in Maine in the arts, especially with theater,” Brown said as the festival opened last year. “People come here with all sorts of dreams and visions. There is room for people to bring their vision here. There’s a lot of talent, a lot of potential. Everybody always thinks the brilliant stuff is done in metropolitan areas. It has been amazing to me to see how much good work is being done here.”

The 15 Minute Festival be held at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at the National Theater Workshop for the Handicapped at 96 Church St. in Belfast. For information call 338-1615 or visit the Web site at www.15minutefestival.com.