ThinkTank Theatre will feature three new plays at its 5th Annual TYA Playwrights Festival on Sunday, August 24th, 2025. The festival will be hosted by the JCC on the Cohn Campus located at 13009 Community Campus Dr, Tampa, FL 33625. The new plays will be performed as staged readings, combining the talents of local theatre professionals with ThinkTank’s Young Artists Ensemble Intern Company, alongside the visiting playwrights from South Florida, Detroit and New York. The purpose of the festival is to provide a platform for forward-thinking, diverse voices for today’s young people and family audiences. The finalists selected for this year’s festival are Remembering Margot by Claudia Haas, My Tree by Samara Siskind, and Camp Cattywampus by Abigail Duclos and Tess Inderbitzin.
The 2025 TYA Playwrights Festival Showcase will commence Sunday, August 24, at 12:00pm, with the staged reading of Remembering Margot, written by Claudia Haas, directed by Kara Gold-Harris and will feature local Tampa theatre veterans Kelsey Lopez, Georgios Tsambis and Kathryn Huettel. Working alongside these will be YAE Members Yara Amani, Erin Gordon, Gustavo Perez, Rio Ricardo and Julianna Spataro.
“Maybe you’ve {heard of} The Diary of Anne Frank and you’d like to know more or delve deeper into the relationship between Anne and Margot. The diary tells us so little about Margot. It’s well-documented that as soon as Margot laid eyes on Anne, she appointed herself “Protector of Her Sister.” What has recently come to light, is Margot was far from the mousey inhabitant in the secret annex. She was highly athletic, competitive and by all accounts – brilliant. Remembering Margot explores Anne’s and Margot’s complicated sisterhood and ends with a little-known fact: at Auschwitz, Margot was offered a choice – a choice that would have saved her life.”
The second 2025 Festival Showcase Finalist, My Tree, will be presented at 2:00 pm. My Tree is written by Samara Siskind and directed by John M. Perez. The staged reading will feature Tampa and New York based actor Alex Anthony Rodriguez alongside YAE member Scarlett Sofia, with narration by Jonah Gamson.
“Jonas has found Sam’s secret hiding spot under her favorite tree. Sam wants to be alone. Jonas craves company. After a run-in with a potential threat and a debate over The Giving Tree, a true friendship evolves, but can their friendship withstand the seasons and stages of adolescence? Setting: A park. One with a big tree. The time is always now.”
The festival will wrap up with the third 2025 Festival Showcase Finalist Camp Cattywampus, written by Abigail Duclos and Tess Inderbitzin, and directed by Georgia Mallory Guy. The staged reading will be performed at 4:00 pm and features recent Plant High graduate/USF freshman Samantha Bollinger alongside YAE company members Audrey Daniels, Skye Stockard, Ashlin Sullivan, Abbey Yokum and Ava Zientek
“Last August, 15-year-old Maisie Green was found dead at the bottom of a cliff near her performing arts summer camp. One year later, her four former cabin-mates return to the camp, still without answers and still reeling from the loss. There, the girls meet Noah, a newcomer who has taken Maisie’s place in the cabin. Relationships form and crumble as the girls—a dancer, a singer-songwriter, a poet, a painter, and an actress—use their individual art forms to explore their complex grief and connections with one another. Camp Cattywampus is a full-length play about loss, rage, falling in love, and, most of all, the triumphs and troubles of being a teenage girl.”
Each reading runs approximately 85 mins and will be followed by a discussion with the playwright, director, and the cast. Each play is recommended for different ages due to differing themes and language. Visit https://www.thinktanktya.org/season2425/2025tyaplayfest for more information on play content.
Reserve your seat today for any of the 2025 Festival Showcase readings – Remembering Margot, My Tree, and Camp Cattywampus. Reservations for the readings are Pay-What-You-Can donation (recommendation of $5) for general seating and $10 for reserved seating. $20 gets you the PlayFest All Access Pass which grants the buyer reserved seating for all three staged readings. Join us at 11:00am to kick off the festival with our Bagel Brunch. Add the Brunch Bagel for $7.50 or step up your PlayFest All Access Pass to $25 to enjoy a fresh spread of bagels, see all the readings, and have reserved seating for one low price!
All tickets and seat reservations can be secured by visiting https://www.thinktanktya.org/season2425/2025tyaplayfest
Our 5th Annual TYA Playwrights Festival is made possible in part by the generous support from the Gobioff Foundation, Lab Athletics, Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, Matt and Mary Gordon, Hal Freedman and Willi Rudowsky, the ThinkTank Board of Directors, and our host at the JCC on the Cohn Campus.
About ThinkTank:
At ThinkTank Theatre, we hold steadfast to the vision of producing thought-provoking, awe-inspiring, professional theatre for young people and family audiences. We strive vigorously to produce high-quality theatrical events and productions, programs for our communities through inclusion and accessibility, and to inspire audiences of all ages to find within themselves their sense of adventure, creativity and curiosity.
ThinkTank believes the work being done for young audiences today should reflect the lives of young people, speaking to them directly, and we dedicate ourselves to honoring a more progressive, forward-thinking approach, setting an example of TYA productions for the American theatre.
Georgia Mallory Guy
Producing Artistic Director
ThinkTank Theatre
