Senior Ronnie Bergeron’s one act play, Drowning in Silence, has been selected as the Senior Division Winner in the 2020 VSA Playwright Discovery Award Program. This national competition is judged by a panel of professional theatre artists who have awarded Bergeron with not only a $1,000.00 cash prize scholarship, but also an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. to attend the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival (KCACTF).

There he will participate in workshops with theatre professionals and peers, attend select KCACTF events and networking opportunities, and receive dedicated development time to further workshop his script with professional directors, actors, and playwrights. At the end of the week, his script will receive an informal reading by professional actors for a small group of invited guests.

The theme of this year’s competition was exploring the disability experience. Bergeron’s play delves into the mind of a character whose Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) takes center stage when the absence of his medicine results in personified versions of his thoughts colliding with each other and overwhelming him.

Bergeron is the co-president of the Philelectic Society’s Executive Board and is in his fifth year as a member of the Phils.