Morgan Patton’15 short play “Strangers in the Park” wins first prize from the Kentucky Theatre Association!

Morgan Patton will be heading up to the Kentucky Theater Association’s Conference this week to see her short play!

Morgan’s talent for creating rich and honest dialogue and fascinating relationships is paying off with this awesome honor from her home state! In her artistic statement she describes her writing, “I come from a middle America culture that minimizes and sanitizes the uncomfortable because it feels safe. But with my plays, I attempt to take that world and ultimately turn it on its head. Characters concerned with first world problems can lull us into a false sense of security until the darker core of that world is found beneath its sanitized facade. When feelings like grief or isolation are buried deep beneath the surface, it can be much scarier than if they were confronted in the open. But when it finally bubbles over, we see that white bread America can be just as dark and disturbing as anywhere else. But like anyone else in this particular culture, I use levity and humor to diffuse the tension until the more serious truth is found.

Patton’s play, along with cuttings from the winning full-length scripts, will be read at the KTA Conference on Friday at Eastern Kentucky University’s Pearl Theatre. KTA’s Roots of the Bluegrass New Play Contest is open to any past or present resident of Kentucky who writes plays. In previous years—the contest is in its fifth year—the contest gave awards only for full-length plays.

Patton’s Strangers in the Park is about a chance meeting between Nathan and Abigail. Even though they just met, they have undeniable chemistry, and more in common than they realize, but they’re hampered by their respective insecurities—and their inability to read each other’s minds.

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More about Morgan:

Morgan Patton was born and raised in Newport, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. In 2011, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northern Kentucky University as an Honors Scholar with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Playwriting and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Her plays work with themes of love, loss, and family in order to explore the elusive concept of identity and what it means to belong. Recently her ten-minute play YARD SALE, about a mug and a teapot, was a regional finalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre festival, and was one of six ten-minute plays staged and developed there. For more information, visit her website at www.playsbymorgan.com.