Scirocco Drama Manitoba Highschool Playwriting Competition

Presented by Scirocco Drama and the Manitoba Association of Playwrights

About the Competition

Each year the Manitoba Association of Playwrights and Scirocco Drama invite high school students to submit plays for the Annual Highschool Playwriting Competition. The plays are about fifteen or twenty minutes, with a minimum of three characters. A panel of theatre professionals reads them and selects five.

The finalists work with a dramaturge to improve the scripts as necessary, directors are hired and actors are cast, the plays are rehearsed and then produced for two nights in early June at the Warehouse Theatre. Votes from the audience are taken each night to decide on the winners! (The votes are tallied and the winners announced on the second night of the two evenings presentation.)

The first prize in the playwriting competition is the Cora McKenzie Award, named after on the winner of the 2003 competition and donated by her family in her memory.

Download the Rules and Guidelines.

2011:

Cora McKenzie Award for First Place:
Logan Stefanson
“Error”
Gimli High School

Second Place:
Caitlin Gannon
“The Game of Life”
Tec Voc High School
Third Place:
Elliot Lazar
“Get Over Yourself”
Gray Academy
Honourable Mentions:
Rebecca Schur
“Everything's Fine”
Steinbach Regional Secondary School
Victoria Isbister
“A Cheesy Twist”
Nelson McIntyre Collegiate

What you would have seen: Great love, unrequited love, friendships tested, family squabbles, self-doubts, homophobia, divorcing parents, unkind strangers, medical emergencies, hospital hijinks, singing and dancing (to live music!), and an inexperienced angel locking horns with a devious demon over the soul of a dying man!

Past Winners

2010:

Cora McKenzie Award for First Place:
Bailey MacLeod
“Penance”
U of W Collegiate

Second Place:
Caitlin Gannon
“Never Turn Back”
Tec Voc High School (Winnipeg)
Third Place:
Kaylyn Kalupar
“How Did I Die?”
College St. Norbert Collegiate (St. Norbert)
Honourable Mentions:
Nathan Hill
“Lost Soul”
Portage Collegiate (Portage la Prairie)
Jessica Gomes
“Possessed By Magic”
Nelson McIntyre Collegiate (Winnipeg)

2009:

Cora McKenzie Award for First Place:
Shelby Thevenot and Aaron McAuley 
 “Dirty Rotten Un Loved Zombie: The Musical”
 Portage Collegiate (Portage la Prairie)

Second Place:
Hannia Curi
 “Tooth Fairies: A Night In The Life”
Vincent Massey Collegiate, (Winnipeg)

Third Place:
Corinne M. Coutts
 “The Voice”
 U of W Collegiate, (Winnipeg)

Honourable Mentions:
Dustin Monkman
“The Truth”
Tec Voc High School (Winnipeg)
Nathan Costa
 “The Guilty Conscience of a Teenage Mind”
 Tec Voc High School (Winnipeg)

9th Contest: The Year Of The Fireball
We almost didn’t have a show, thanks to an unexpected explosion that sent a giant fireball up from a manhole near the Tom Hendry (Warehouse) Theatre on Friday morning.  It knocked out all of the power for blocks, and hit the Warehouse worse than anywhere.  All of the technical rehearsals had to be cancelled, and there was no guarantee that the power would even come back in time for the performances…  But it did, and the performances went on without the benefit of technical rehearsals, which would have allowed groups to prepare lights and sound.  The biggest surprise was how truly well the performances went in spite of this.  Thank you to everyone for your hard work and patience!  Let’s hope this was the one and only year of the fireball…
   

2008:

Cora McKenzie Award for First Place:
I Dream Of Jimmy  by Ashley Alberg, West Kildonan Collegiate (Winnipeg)
Second Place:
The Love Triangle by K.R. Byggdin, Niverville Collegiate (Niverville)
Third Place:
Death (And Other Small Issues of Communication by Jessy Ardern, Vincent Massey Collegiate (Winnipeg)
Honourable Mentions:
Don’t Forget About Us by Kris Longmuir, Tec Voc High School (Winnipeg)
Caroline by Cherrel Holder, Vincent Massey Collegiate (Winnipeg)

 

2007:

Cora McKenzie Award for First Place:
45 Reasons Why I hate The World by Dylan Gyles, Kelvin High School (Winnipeg)
Second Place:
In The Hot Seat by Kaitlyn McDermid, Portage Collegiate (Portage la Prairie)
Third Place:
Perspective by Maria Funk, Tec Voc High School (Winnipeg)
Honourable Mentions:
I’ll Be Seeing You by Ashley Alberg, West Kildonan Collegiate (Winnipeg)
Color of Love by Chanelle Holder, Vincent Massey Collegiate (Winnipeg)

 

2006:

1st Place:  Think, Then Speak by Dylan Gyles, Kelvin High School, Winnipeg
2nd Place:  Eckvile by Joseph Tritt, The Collegiate, (U of W)
3rd Place: Letting Go by Rochelle Fourre, Tec Voc High School, Winnipeg
Honourable Mentions:
Rubber Boots and Bamboo Shoots  by Kaitlyn McDermid, Portage Collegiate, Portage la Prairie
Missing Maureen by Jesse Ardern, Vincent Massey Collegiate, Winnipeg

 

2005:

1st Place:  Take It by Dylan Gyles, Kelvin High School, Winnipeg
2nd Place:  Hockey Life In Canada by Devon Ford, Portage Collegiate, Portage la Prairie
3rd Place: A Play By Joseph Black by Conrad Sweatman, Kelvin High School, Winnipeg
Honourable Mentions:
The Village of Life  by Grace Bowness, College Churchill, Winnipeg
The Right Thing To Do by Theresa McIver, Westwood Collegiate, Winnipeg

 

2004:

1st Place: Virgin Falls by Alyssa Stefanson (Westwood Collegiate)
2nd Place: Kaddy by Hannah Prodan (Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School)
3rd Place: The Case of the White Truffle by Grace Bowness (College Churchill)
Honourable Mentions:
Faces, Time-Lapsed by Josh Grummett (John Taylor Collegiate)
New Order by Michelle Bigold (St. James Collegiate)

2003:

1st Place: .COM, by Cora McKenzie (Portage Collegiate);
2nd Place: A Disconnection, by Ashley Sy and Katherine Vong (Kelvin High School);
3rd Place: Harlot, Queen of Denmark, by Craig Haas (Westwood Collegiate)
Honourable Mentions:
It's Simple, by Jenna Tichon (Westwood Collegiate),
Escape, by David Barkman (Westwood Collegiate)

2002:

1st Place: An Ordinary Girl, by Lauren Parsons (Kelvin High School)
2nd Place: In Wonderland, by Christine Kampen, (Westgate Mennonite Collegiate);
3rd Place: On the Road, Colin Shelton (Westgate Mennonite Collegiate);
Honourable Mentions:
Twist of Fate, Cole Robson-Hyska (Dakota Collegiate),
Waves on the Shore, Marieke Breakey (Westwood Collegiate)

2001:

1st Place: The Old Lie, by Katherine Coerdt, Christelle Manaigre, and Cherie Perrier (College Lorette Collegiate);
2nd Place: The Eagle Princess, by Amanda Barbeau, (Frontier Collegiate);
3rd Place: Mixed Up Fairy Tales, by Deborah Vanbeek, Deborah VanderLinde, and Pamela Shpak (Immanuel Christian School)
Honourable Mentions:
An Old Man's Face, by Cole Robson-Hyska (Dakota Collegiate);
He Can't Be, by Odessa Bashuk-Riechel (Garden City Collegiate),