Lake Tahoe’s Only One-Act Play Competition & Staged Reading Event

Our vision for WordWave is an annual cultural event for locals and visitors to share their stories, create and be inspired by the beauty of Lake Tahoe. Every culture uses story to entertain, educate, preserve traditions, and connect. The underlying principle of WordWave is that stories, when shared with others, change lives. WordWave provides a venue for locals and visitors to experience these shared stories on stage, where the doors open to the shores of Lake Tahoe.

WordWave features an annual one-act play writing competition that opens in spring and running through summer that culminates in a winners’ event in the fall. Three submissions will be selected each year as the winners and each winner will receive a cash prize and be offered a 2-night stay in South Lake Tahoe to see their work directed and produced as a staged reading at the historic Valhalla Boathouse Theatre.

WordWave Performance is September 30, 2023 at 7pm. Meet-the-Writer’s Wine & Dessert Reception immediately following in the Grand Hall. Sponsored by The Cork and More.

Event Tickets

Congratulations to our 2023 Award-Winning Play Writers!

Curt Strickland

“Speed Dating”

Curt Strickland is a  playwright who recently received a masters degree in playwriting from Lesley University’s graduate program. Inspired by August Wilson, Curt is finishing up his 5th play in a ten play opus on American, each play set in a different decade. Besides his political and cultural essays, Curt is a landscape photographer, and a former owner at Great American Art, one of the largest commercial art corporations in the nation. Curt believes that Art should serve to heal, inspire, provoke, challenge and to offer hope – but most of all to connect, to remind us of our common humanity. His short play, Speed Dating, was recently produced in ten theaters around the country, including Canada. Another short play, Trump’s Big Announcement, will be performed at the Secret Theatre this August in Queens, New York.In 2020, Curt received a double lung transplant, an event that had profound effects on both his writing and his life. This experience is the basis of a new play he is developing called Double Lung.

Gordon Farr

“Sam & Flo”

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Gordon moved to Los Angeles in his twenties and began writing for television. He wrote scripts for Three’s Company, Maude, The Jeffersons, Rhoda and more. He also wrote over 15 scripts for a series that The Writers Guild of America has declared, one of “The Top One Hundred And One Series in the History of Television.” The Bob Newhart Show. Towards the end of his time in Los Angeles, he co-created, wrote, produced and directed The Love Boat series. He has since moved back to Canada and, with the urging of several fellow writers, wrote his first play, Sam & Flo.

Amy Crider

“5 Views of David Hockney’s The Arrival of Spring in Normandy, 2020“

Amy Crider got her BA in theater from Goddard College, and she later studied at Second City and Chicago Dramatists. In 2021, her play Fourteen won the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Contest, and it will be published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) in 2023. Her mystery novel Disorder won the University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize and was published in 2021. Her new novel, Kells: a novel of the eighth century, comes out in October. She produces a podcast called Continuous Dream Theatre,

From Past Performances

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A play about friendship. About sharing our vulnerabilities. About growing older. About saying things you would never say to someone that wasn’t your best friend. Inappropriate, funny, caustic, and irreverent, Liddy & Eleanor maneuver through one of their “closest friend’s” funeral with hilarity.

John Paul Porter2019 Winner for Funeral for a Friend
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This play instantly spoke to us. It’s quirky and poetic, with human truths that can speak to anyone. A lovely piece that will tug at your heart-strings, make you laugh, and have you cheering in the end.

Dagney Kerr2019 Winner for Deanna and Paul
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To anyone that has ever had auto-correct text messages go out without intent, this is your play. A funny take on current faux-pas in the world of dating, this play will definitely tickle your funny bone and have you laughing out loud!

Dave Hanson2019 Winner for Cafe D’Automatique
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As if the joy of seeing my work brought to life wasn’t enough, the location is absolutely heavenly, the Boathouse Theater is like a little hidden gem, and the people involved with producing WordWave are extremely generous, enthusiastic, and sweet. I’ll never forget the feeling of hearing the reactions from the audience of wonderful locals gathered together to support new writers — I think I spent the evening a few inches off the ground. WordWave is a great experience for an emerging playwright.

Gabriella Giocomo2017 winner for Locked In
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What an incredible experience it was to see the talented actors and director bring my words to life onstage. The night of the production was one of the best nights of my life. I was so proud of the actors and grateful for the way they treated my work with such respect and enthusiasm. They brought their own artistic vision to my script and, by bringing the characters and their relationships to life, made it even better than simply my words on the page.

Dallas Woodburn2015 winner for Woman Running Late in a Dress
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Tahoe WordWave 2019 Winner: Dave Hanson’s Cafe D’Automatique

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Part I

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Tahoe WordWave 2019 winner John Paul Porter’s “Funeral for a Friend”

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Part I

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Tahoe WordWave 2019 Winner Dagney Kerr’s “Deanna and Paul”

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Part I