Randy Lee Gross Takes Kumu Kahua’s Go Try PlayWrite Prize for

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Gross's winning submission explores how people interact in the aftermath of disaster.

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Kumu Kahua Theatre and Bamboo Ridge Press have announced the winner of the August 2026 Go Try PlayWrite Contest. Randy Lee Gross won for his piece 'The Ear of the Hurricane.'

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Playwright, screenwriter, and poet Randy Lee Gross , a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., has had plays presented in thirteen U.S. states and also in London, Sydney, and Newmarket, Ontario. His full-length play, 'The Naugahyde Man,' was awarded the prestigious Pacific/Rim Prize as part of the 2020 Kumu Kahua/UHM Theatre Department Playwriting Contest; his full-length play, 'The Haunted Train,' received an off-off Broadway production – with music – at Theatre for The New City in October 2015; and his play 'Bread' was included in 'The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2015' (Smith & Kraus, Inc.). Most recently, his full-length play, 'Vegan Vampires from Vermont,' was a semifinalist in the 2023 Dramatists Guild Virtual Musical Theatre Fellowship competition.

An aftermath prompt. Write a ten-page maximum scene about neighbours coming together after a hurricane. Its hurricane season here in Hawai'i. They could be long-time friends. They could be estranged. They could have been fighting before the hurricane. And when I say 'coming together' I don't necessary mean cooperating. How do people interact after a catastrophe?

Each month Kumu Kahua Theatre co-sponsors this playwriting contest with Bamboo Ridge Press in their combined effort to nurture local playwrights and authors. Each month a different judge is pulled from amongst the theatre practitioners in the Hawaii theatre community. All plays submitted are read by Kumu Kahua Theatre Artistic Director, Harry Wong III.

Each entrant must write a 5-page monologue and/or a 10-page scene based on monthly requirements. Each month a new prompt will be chosen by Kumu Kahua Theatre's Artistic Director. The prompt will be given on or by the 1st of the month and the due date will always be the last day of the month. All entries must be written in traditional play format; instructions on this format can be found here: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/script-formats courtesy of the Dramatists Guild.

There will be one winner each month. Scripts will be submitted to the judges anonymously. So please do not put your name on the cover of your script. Winners will receive $100.00 and a subscription to Bamboo Ridge Press.

Kumu Kahua productions are supported in part by The Kim Coco Fund for Justice of the Iwamoto Family Foundation, Timothy and Eddie, the NME Fund of the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, the Island Insurance Foundation, The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawaiʻi, The AAPI Community Fund, The Richard Aadland Fund, The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, The John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Spectrum/Charter Communications, ABC Stores, the Gloria Kosasa Gainsley Fund, Hawaiʻi Public Radio, H. Hawaii Media, Simply Storage, HUB Coworking, Vacations Hawaiʻi, Zippy's Restaurants, Highway Inn, Generations Magazine, CVS/Longs Drugs, HMSA, Hawaiian Electric, MonkeyPod, and other foundations, businesses, and loyal patrons.

Nominate your favorite local productions and performers before the deadline on October 31, 2026.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/hawaii/article/Randy-Lee-Gross-Wins-Go-Try-PlayWrite-Contest-at-Kumu-Kahua-20260917)._