The Ten-Minute Play Festival: Original Theatre by Kitsap County Playwrights
Every August, something remarkable happens at the Buxton Center at Bainbridge Performing Arts: ten original plays — each under ten minutes, each written by a Kitsap County playwright — take the stage for the Island Theatre Ten-Minute Play Festival.
The TMPF is one of the only opportunities in Kitsap County for playwrights to have their original work fully staged, directed by an experienced director, and performed for a real audience. For many participants, it's their first time seeing their words realized in production. For some, it's where a writing career begins.
What a Ten-Minute Play Is
A ten-minute play is exactly what it sounds like: a complete dramatic work that can be performed in ten minutes or less. What it isn't is a sketch or a scene. A ten-minute play has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It introduces characters the audience cares about. Something happens. Something is at stake.
The constraint is the point. Ten minutes forces economy. Every line has to carry weight. Every moment has to serve the story. The best ten-minute plays are models of dramatic compression — they do in ten minutes what lesser works can't accomplish in ninety.
Samuel Beckett's Act Without Words runs eight minutes. Some of Edward Albee's early works clock in under ten. The form has a serious literary tradition, and the TMPF takes it seriously.
How the Festival Works
Call for Submissions (Winter) Each winter, Island Theatre opens submissions to Kitsap County playwrights. There's no theme — just a strong connection to Kitsap County (living or working here, or having done so in the past) and a play that can be performed in ten minutes or less.
The competition is open to writers of all experience levels, from high school age and above. First-time playwrights submit alongside experienced writers. The panel reads everything on equal terms.
Selection A panel of theatre professionals and Island Theatre board members reads every submission and selects ten plays for production. They're looking for dramatic quality: strong characters, theatrical effectiveness, and plays that will work in performance, not just on the page.
Pre-Festival: Meet the Playwrights Before the performances, Island Theatre hosts a panel discussion and Q&A with the selected playwrights. The audience gets to ask about process, inspiration, and what it's like to see their work realized. It's one of the most intimate and engaging events in the festival.
The Festival (August) Over one weekend, the ten selected plays are performed at the BPA Buxton Center in four performances. Each play has its own director, its own cast of local actors, and full staging. Audience members vote for their favorites, and awards are presented at the final performance.
Why Playwrights Submit
The TMPF offers something rare: a guaranteed path from page to stage. Submissions that are selected don't go into a reading pile and wait — they get produced. A real director. Real actors. A real audience of several hundred people over a weekend.
For emerging playwrights, that experience — hearing an audience laugh at a line you wrote, watching actors make choices about your characters, feeling the silence during a moment of dramatic tension — is formative. It tells you things about your writing that no workshop or feedback session can.
For experienced playwrights, the TMPF is a chance to experiment. The ten-minute form rewards risk-taking. You can try something you wouldn't attempt in a full-length work. And if it doesn't land perfectly, the stakes are measured — it's ten minutes of a festival, not the centerpiece of a season.
Why This Matters for Kitsap County
There are very few venues for new plays in the Pacific Northwest outside of Seattle. Regional theatre companies rarely produce unproduced work. New playwrights in Kitsap County — and there are many — have historically had to travel to find a stage willing to take a chance on their work.
The TMPF changes that equation. It creates a local venue for original work, a community of writers who know each other and attend each other's productions, and an audience willing to engage with new theatre rather than familiar titles.
Over its history, the festival has launched writers who have gone on to produce work regionally and nationally. The plays it has staged have ranged from family comedies to unflinching dramas, from surrealism to naturalism, from monologues to ensemble pieces. The only requirement is that they're compelling.
How to Get Involved
Submit a play. If you write plays and have a connection to Kitsap County, watch for the annual call for submissions in winter. The submission deadline is typically February 14th. All submissions are read carefully by a knowledgeable panel.
Direct a play. The TMPF uses local directors for all ten productions. If you're an experienced director interested in working with original material, reach out to us.
Act in the festival. Auditions are held after plays are selected. Keep an eye on our announcements for audition dates.
Come see it. The best thing you can do for new theatre is show up and watch it. Four performances over one weekend in August. Tickets are available through Bainbridge Performing Arts.
Contact: [email protected] | Learn more about the TMPF →