The Bridge Initiative announces the winners of their Playwright and Director of the Year

The Bridge Initiative:  Women in Arizona Theatre has awarded New York City-based Kat Ramsburg as Playwright of the Year and Phoenix native Amanda Noel Trombley as Director of the Year.

Trombley will direct the world premiere of Kat Ramsburg's Anatomy of a Hug about a young woman whose dying mother is discharged from prison into her care.   The production dates are June 19-21st, at Mesa Encore Theatre, 318 E. Brown Road, Mesa, AZ.

Amanda Noel Trombley

The Bridge Initiative received 102 plays submitted from 22 states, the District of Columbia, and three foreign countries.  The works were adjudicated by a team of 13 professional artists who live in New York City, Los Angeles, Colorado, Oregon, and Arizona where they produce, act, direct, write and teach at the college level.  Every submission was scored anonymously, on criteria of originality, storytelling, dialogue, characters, production potential, and an X factor ("I want to see this play").

Additionally, The Bridge Initiative has awarded two runners-up whose plays will be presented in readings in June.  Carolyn Nur Wistrand's Magdalena's Crossing, set in Texas and the Mexican borderlands, is described by the playwright as a "modern sorrow song of identity and immigration."  Heidi Armbruster's Dairyland follows a young woman from Wisconsin who loses herself in New York City and only rediscovers her identity when she returns home to the farm.

Click here for more information on The Bridge Initiative and these upcoming productions.