Valley Players will hold its first Take Ten celebration on Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26 at Black Birch Vineyard, 108 Straits Road in Hatfield. The evening will showcase staged readings of six new 10-minute plays by playwrights from around the Valley, featuring a company of twenty Valley actors and directors. Half of net proceeds will be donated to The Literacy Project. Reservations can be made at valleyplayers.org and are on a pay-what-you-can scale starting at $15.
In addition to the plays, audience members will be able to enjoy fine wines from Black Birch Vineyard, sodas, non-alcoholic beers and mocktails, and artisanal wood-fired pizza from The Vintner’s Slice food truck. They can also bring their own food to enjoy during the show.
“The wonderful thing about an evening of ten-minute plays is the sheer variety of voices, styles, and genres,” remarked Valley Players president Matteo Pangallo. “It’s an opportunity to get a taste of just some of the incredible writing talent we have here in the region.”
“This partnership with Valley Players is a wonderful example of how the arts and education can come together to strengthen our community,” said The Literacy Project’s executive director, Colleen Kucinski. “The generosity of their audiences will directly support adults working hard to improve their literacy skills and build brighter futures.”
Valley Players received thirty-one submissions to its call for scripts, with the final six chosen through an anonymous review process by a panel comprising prominent members of the local theater community, made up of Christine Benvenuto, Chris Rohmann, Jarice Hanson, Cynthia Naughton, Miles Herter, and John Bechtold. More than thirty actors signed up for the open auditions, Pangallo noted, making Take Ten Valley Players’ largest collaborative project since its founding in 2024.
The plays in Take Ten are “A Concern” by Anna Fox, directed by Tracy Grammer and featuring Lila Oren-Dahan and Sandra Wang; “Summer People” by Stephen Poulin, directed by Anna Morrissey and featuring Tracy Trimm and Anthony Charles Ferreira; “The Waiting Room” by E. A. Blair, directed by Jill Franks and featuring Christine Mirabal, Claire Frierson, and Heather Lattuca Ferrari; “Terms and Conditions” by Sarah Zureick-Brown, directed by Joe van Allen and featuring K. Dymek and Camila Mugnani Hallet; “This is Not a Play” by JSWalter, directed by Marty Bongfeldt and featuring Martin Konowitch, Ben Hersey, and Daniel Greycloud-Jacob; and “Letting the Cat Out” by Richard Ballon, directed by Alan Harris and featuring Emily Hazelton and Susan O’Hara.
The Literacy Project’s mission is to expand access to education for adults across Western Massachusetts so they can engage meaningfully and equitably in the economic, social, cultural and civic life of their communities. They offer free literacy programs for adults to build reading, writing, math, and life skills. More information about The Literacy Project is available at literacyproject.org.
Valley Players is an all-volunteer nonprofit group with a mission to enrich the quality of life in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts by producing nimble, meaningful, and accessible theater. Valley Players uses community theater to help build community, donating half of net ticket proceeds to other Valley nonprofits. More information, including how to donate or become a business sponsor, is at valleyplayers.org.