2023 Writers Search Semifinalists
2025 Writers Search Semifinalists
SCREENPLAY SEMIFINALISTS
Thomas Alvey The Belle's Ball
Set in Louisville’s drag scene, The Belle’s Ball follows David, whose fierce drag persona masks deep instability. As his drinking strains his partner and career, an unexpected arrival—a homeless, queer teenager—forces David into a parental role he never wanted. Balancing club life, social-work ethics, and chosen family, David must decide whether he can break the cycle of abandonment and addiction before it costs him everything.
Thomas Alvey (They/He) is the Fine Arts Coordinator and Director of Theatre and Film at Somerset Community College in Somerset, Kentucky. While Alvey is mainly an educator, they also hold special interests in New Play Development, Applied Theatre, and Children’s Theatre as well as making theatre available and affordable to everyone. They hold a BA in Theatre Arts and a BA in Media Studies from Lindsey Wilson College, and an MFA in Writing for the Screen in Stage from Point Park University.
Connect with Thomas on Instagram.
J.R. BROWN Reverse Destination
A mother dies and her son inherits more questions than possessions. His fate is sealed by the unconventional when he travels back in time to find where things went wrong on a crusade to correct them while living amongst his own family of strangers. Tragedy and excitement drive him to a discovery far beyond any story he was ever told or could imagine.
J.R. Brown is a southern storyteller. He was that child who studied all the goings-on around him and then told his own version of them. A native Arkansan and the only child of a single parent, he has been in a few movies — the lead in a couple of them — and on television, both episodic and in commercials. He also writes about the always-stranger-than-fiction truth of life and the relationships that people have — but seldom talk about.
MALIK BROWN Undecided
When he returns home for Christmas for the first time in years, a political advisor finds himself torn between a charming British journalist and the ambitious ex-boyfriend who broke his heart—Atlanta’s newly elected Mayor.
Malik Brown is an award-winning LGBTQ advocate, political strategist, and emerging writer, developing original work across essays, novels, and screenplays. He has been featured in prestigious outlets like "CNN", "NBC News", and "The Hill". His writings have been showcased in national publications like "Cosmopolitan", "them.", and "Out Magazine." A sought-after speaker, Malik has delivered addresses on stages at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Ad Week New York, and Revolt World.
JAZMINE GIBBS 55 & Over
Kameron, an amateur basketball player loses her older brother suddenly, gets into some trouble, and is sentenced to Community Service. Sent to live with an Aunt, at her Retirement Community, Kameron recruits for a senior basketball team. She wants nothing more but to win, is her team up to the task?
Born and raised in Michigan, I found my voice early and started writing scripts at seventeen. What began as curiosity turned into a need to tell honest, character-driven stories shaped by place, silence, and lived experience. I write to explore human connection, tension, and the moments people don’t always say out loud.
LAUREN NEAL & IAN RICE To Catch a Cougar
Mercurial Millennial Lucy is brilliant at code, terrible at life. Testing a May-December dating app, she meets mid-life Mel and discovers what she’s been avoiding: genuine connection. As Lucy navigates dozens of absurd dates—from trunk-dwelling granola lovers to ancient retirees—her relationship with Mel becomes the only real thing. When exposed, Lucy must build something no algorithm can: trust, redemption, and a future together.
Lauren Neal is an award-winning actor, filmmaker, and data scientist. Lauren was the driving creative force behind Cannes-selected microbudget feature “Under the Influencer.” She is a two-time CDDP semifinalist, a graduate of WBD’s inaugural VFX Coordinator training program, and Outfest’s 2020 Hyundai Emerging Director. Lauren and her wife Jill Bennett recently won the Trilith Studios / SeriesFest Pitch-a-Thon for their sitcom Bad Habits. Currently, Lauren is producing a horror-comedy feature alongside Oscar-winner Karen Toliver. Her acting credits include Westworld, 9-1-1, and Dexter: Original Sin.
Connect with Lauren on Instagram.
PLAY SEMIFINALISTS
CHARLES L. DeLONG He Stoops To Conquer
He Stoops To Conquer is a contemporary gay-themed farcical comedy set in the present-day countryside of England. The play is a reimagining of and adapted from Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops To Conquer. The story details the misadventures of Kent Hardcastle, whose father Benjamin has conspired with an old friend Charles Marlow to marry their sons off to each other (in order to keep their social standing and their fortunes secured within their families). The one problem is that Marlow's son Chuck is painfully insecure and shy around handsome young men of the higher echelons. This fact leads to several other mixups, mistaken identities, and mishaps before the final inevitable happy ending.
Charles DeLong is a recently retired Special Education teacher who worked as an educator for twenty-five years. He previously earned a Semi-Finalist recognition with the Del Shores Foundation Writers Search (in its inaugural year) with his script Unbridled Passions. In total, he has written over thirty plays and musical scripts. Additionally, he has directed over seventy stage plays and musicals and has appeared as a performer in over 100 stage productions. Charles thanks Del and Emerson for this opportunity and for their continued support of LGBTQ+ artists.
SAM HEYMAN The Lover and the Fighter
Lee and Shawn are two unlikely best friends whose lives have taken them on wildly different paths: Lee is attending college at a small liberal arts school and Shawn is serving in the United States Army. With the help of trusted friends and confidants, each young man reckons with the unanswered questions and unresolved feelings related to their last moments together. Can they find a path toward the peace--and truth--they yearn for? Can they claim the love they deserve?
Sam Heyman (he/they) is a queer, Jewish playwright based in Nashville, TN. A proud member of the Dramatist’s Guild of America, Sam works locally as a playwriting instructor for The Porch Writers Collective and produces the virtual Playwrights Thriving Reading Series. Sam’s plays have been developed with support from the Desert Playwrights Retreat, the Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, and the Midwest Dramatists Conference, among other organizations.
Connect with Sam on New Play Exchange or Instagram.
ZACHARY SCALZO Pylades
Taking inspiration from one of Western theatre’s oldest stories, the Oresteia, this play considers the world around Orestes—his nursemaid, his sisters, and, the focus of the play, his ever-constant and often-silent companion Pylades. It starts with two boys in a hillside kingdom far away and ends with to two men bound in a prophecy they helped to create but which threatens to keep them apart. Pylades is part-tragedy and part-oracle, exploring the lengths we will go to for justice, for love, and for something that falls in between.
Zachary Scalzo (he/they) is a queer writer, translator, and theatremaker. They can be found at azachofalltrades.com and on most major podcasting platforms with his co-host Derek on Two-Player Theory. They are one of the founding members of the theatrical collaboration Whatever Works.
Connect with Zachary their website or on Instagram.
HUNT SCARRITT Just Not Naked Enough
Hunt Scarritt is a playwright, screenwriter, actor and teacher living in New Orleans.
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IAN WEHRENBERG Suburban Supernova
In a future so near it feels like the present, an impending supernova signals the world's end. Whilst the world prepares for its demise, Gideon Winters returns to his middle American suburban hometown after years of living his own private life. Once back, he must confront the unspoken demons of his past as everything around him permanently fades into the realm of memory. Suburban Supernova is a meditation on community, nostalgia, family, hope and grief at the end of the world.
Ian Wehrenberg (he/him/his) is an actor, director and playwright with a BFA in Acting from the University of Central Oklahoma. Selected credits as an actor include Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi (James Dean et. al.), Pirandello's Enrico IV (Bertoldo) and James Ijames' White (Gus McKnight), for which he was a semi-finalist for the Kennedy Center Irene Ryan Award. As a director, Ian has mounted productions of Joshua Harmon's Significant Other and Mike Bartlett's Cock. Connect with Ian on Instagram.
SHORT/WEB SERIES SEMIFINALISTS
TAYLOR FLANAGAN Trash Day
In this tender exploration of cycle-breaking, a young boy in a chaotic home learns that some parents treat their children with kindness even when no one is looking.
Taylor Flanagan (she/any) is delighted to be a semi-finalist for the very screenplay she started at last year's DSF festival. Her writing has been recognized in the past by DSF, TUBU Fest, FronteraFest, Barr Hill Players Fellowship, and the Austin Film Festival. She has also performed in over eighty plays and one documentary (about playwright Horton Foote). Her semi-finalist short Trash Day would not exist without Susan Suarez and Andrea James’ encouragement and inspiration. Connect with Taylor's website or on Instagram or Facebook.
DOMINIC MANGIOCCO Lost Boy
After being outed and disowned, a queer teen crashes with friends and spirals through heartbreak, betrayal, and the quiet realization that healing doesn’t always come with closure.
Dominic Mangiocco is a screenwriter and aspiring filmmaker based in Dallas, Texas. His work centers on queer identity, emotional repression, and the search for belonging, often filtered through the lens of suburban adolescence. Deeply influenced by queer cinema and personal memory, Dominic’s writing blends stylized visuals with intimate, character-driven storytelling. He is currently developing several short film scripts, including Lost Boy and I Do Believe in Fairies, and is at work on his debut feature, Under the Water Tower, a coming-of-age drama exploring masculinity, chosen family, and self-discovery in the American South.
Connect with Dominic on Instagram.
ASTRO PHOENIX We're Not Good We're Super
GRIFFIN STUMP The Wrath of Lilith
The Wrath of Lilith is a screenplay about a girl living in a town haunted by an entity that no one acknowledges. This entity latches onto "sinners," urging them to sacrifice their own limbs for it. Lilith, having watched her mother succumb to the entity's pull, does everything in her power to ward the entity away when it beckons her.
Griffin Stump (he/they) is a writer and filmmaker based in Nashville, TN. They are currently earning their Bachelors in Video and Film Production at Middle Tennessee State University and aspire to bring their horror screenplays to life. His love for writing horror originates from visiting his grandparents in rural Appalachia, drawing inspiration from the people and the mythos of the American South. Griffin wrote his Bachelor's thesis on queer representation in horror films and strives to utilize the queer perspective in his work.
Visit Griffin's website HERE, or connect Instagram.