Spark Showcase

Fri., June 25, 7 p.m., $20, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., 215-413-7150, phillytheatretix.com.

by Mark Cofta

theater

Last June, the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance's Spark Showcase allowed audiences to select the winner of the Hotel Obligado Audience Choice Award for New Work, funding the launch of Plays & Players' kick-ass silly Zombie! The Musical and celebrating four other new works. We've got the chance to choose again this Friday, when six small local theater companies, curated by Theatre Exile's Deborah Block, present new works-in-progress by area playwrights for our approval and the $1,000 prize: Madhouse Theater's Dysfictional Circumstances by David Robson and John Stanton; Plays & Players' Simulations by David Strattan White; Represented Theatre Co.'s M.A.C.H.O. by Armando Batista; Secret Room Theatre's Sally Sock by Alex Dremann; and Luna Theater/Philadelphia Dramatists Center collaborating on Katharine Clark Gray's Pussycat. We laugh, we cry, we vote, and one company walks away with the cash.