2026 SacTown Play Festival

Join us at our 5th Annual SacTown Play Festival featuring the works of aspiring playwrights!
At the festival, each of the playwrights scripts will be performed and a panel of judges (local theatre professionals) will determine the winners for Best Playscript ($200 prize) and Best Directing and Staging ($100 prize – for the director).
And YOU, the audience, will also have the opportunity to vote for your favorite play (a prize of $75 to the playwright and $75 to the director) and who you think the Best Actor and Best Actress of the festival was (includes TBA prizes as well!).

Here are the Finalists!

  • Melissa Jordan Grey’s Bittercake
  • Kevin Flaherty’s Ghosted
  • Shelley Segal’s Gotta Dance! In the Suburbs
  • Jack Calvert’s Miner’s Hope
  • Hadley Granger’s Psyched Out
  • Margaret McAleese’s Slap Happy

WHEN

Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 1pm (Doors open 30 minutes to curtain)

VENUE

Royal Stage Theatre
6174 Sunrise Blvd.,
Citrus Heights, CA 95610
(Note: the venue is on the Greenback end of the mall, in between where Macy’s Mens and Zumiez used to be)

TICKETS

  • $15 – online
  • $20 – at the door
BUY TICKETS

About the Festival

The SacTown Play Festival has been created to support aspiring playwrights.

The competition has been designed with the goal to inspire, educate and nurture artists and our community towards a thoughtful and humane world view through the art of story-telling.

We desire to help theatre artists find their voices, cultivate social consciousness and prepare for a lasting career. We support new AND established playwrights and incubate new plays.

We seek to make a lasting, life-long impression on our community – inspiring the audience to continue provocative conversations long after the curtain closes.

The scripts participating at the Festival will be chosen based on script creativity, characterization, and staging potential. The festival will feature six 1-Act plays (must be 10 to 15 minutes long) written by aspiring playwrights.

A look back at the 2024 and 2025 SacTown Play Festivals

The Plays

Bittercake

Written by Melissa Jordan Grey
Directed by Erin Renfree

Synopsis

When a young mother bakes her great-grandmother’s buttercake for her daughter’s birthday, five generations of women barge into the kitchen, each armed with ingredients and an opinion, stirring up very different ideas of what it means to show love.

Cast List

  • Candi Pickering as Rena
  • Denise Anderson as Deborah
  • Sidnie Blodgett as Maya

Rated PG – some material may not be suitable for children.

Ghosted

Written by Kevin Flaherty
Directed by Wesley Murphy

Synopsis

A dramatic psychic’s séance goes hilariously off-script when she summons a sarcastic, tech-annoyed ghost . Bypassing the medium entirely, the spirit casually bonds with her disgruntled clients over mundane modern complaints. It’s a comedy about closing the veil, setting boundaries, and finding unexpected closure in the digital age.

Cast List

  • Rebecca Redmond as Madame Clarissa
  • Cameron Gibson as Mr. Parker
  • Jae Gayle as Mrs. Parker
  • Chad Eldridge as Eddie
  • Steven Minow as The Ghost (Barry)
  • TBD as The Delivery Driver

Rated PG – some material may not be suitable for children.

Gotta Dance! In the Suburbs

Written by Shelley Segal
Directed by Laura Luke

Synopsis

Celeste, a frustrated suburban housewife, refuses to return home to Oklahoma after a trip to New York because she wants to pursue the exciting life and career she thinks she missed. She spirals into a midlife rebellion in the middle of an airport terminal. After her husband and daughter give up on her she meets Herbert, a mysterious stranger who claims to be her occasional guardian angel. With the help of a metaphorical bridge, he shows Celeste what her community and family might lose if she abandons them. She also learns that fulfillment may come not from escaping home, but from reinventing it.

Cast List

  • Stacey Nason as Celeste
  • Ryan Mason as Tom
  • Keira Foster as Kelsie
  • Anthony DePage as Herbert

Rated PG – some material may not be suitable for children.

Miner’s Hope

Written by Jack Calvert
Directed by Christine Lovette

Synopsis

The realities of a miner’s life are seen in this play.  We see that when the miner’s worst fear is realized, escape can be found in an unexpected way. An explosion forces three miners to face the prospect of being trapped a half-mile underground and challenges them to find a way to escape, one way of another.

Cast List

  • Anthony DePage as Karl
  • Cameron Gibson as Paddy
  • Ryan Mason as Stan

Rated PG-13 – Mature Themes. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Psyched Out

Written by Hadley Granger
Directed by Gillian Rains

Synopsis

An anxious dreamer wakes up in their own mind. They must journey through the mind and face the three parts of themselves in order to find their way home.

Cast List

  • Haley DePage as Dreamer
  • Jae Gayle as Ego
  • Keira Foster as Super Ego
  • Sidnie Blodgett as ID

Rated PG-13 – Mature Themes. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

Slap Happy

Written by Margaret McAleese
Directed by Edward A. Nason

Synopsis

When novelist Steve signs up for a tour of a local historic home for inspiration for his new book, his expectation is vintage charm and the flavor of the old world. Alongside the museum docent, Frankie, and a new acquaintance, Sarah, the home turns out to be a spiritual and profound experience for all.

Cast List

  • Haley DePage as Frankie
  • John as Steve
  • Denise Anderson as Sarah

Rated PG – some material may not be suitable for children.