Leslie Sanderson began writing plays in 2018. Since then, her plays have been produced in the USA and abroad and have won and been short listed in play contests, including New Works Festival, WI; King’s Shorts Festival of Ten Minute Plays, Nova Scotia; STAGE IT!, Center for the Performing Arts, FL; Durango Arts Center, CO ("People's Choice"); Chameleon Theatre Circle, MN; JL Smith New Play Festival, PA; Short+Sweet Theatre Festivals in Dubai, U.A.E., and in Perth, Illawara and Sydney, Australia; Remarkable Theatre's Pint Sized Plays in New Zealand; and Broward College Take Ten Florida Playwrights competition ("Audience Favorite").
Sanderson appears in and directs plays, musicals and staged readings in community theaters in New Hampshire and Southwest Florida. For 2023, Broadway World for Ft. Myers/Naples area recognized her as "The Best Performer in a Play" for her role as Nanny in Hollywood Arms, at the A.C.T. Theatre on Marco island. The prestigious awards, determined by votes from attendees and the theatre-going public, recognized the excellence and talent Sanderson showcased in this captivating play.
She is on the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Music Festival, Plymouth, NH, and of Gulf Coast Poodle Club and Rescue, Naples, FL. She is a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, and the Dramatists Guild. An avid tennis player, swimmer, and traveler, she shares her life with her husband and BFF Bob Ziegel, and their Standard Poodle Ivy.
Plays
SHORT PLAY 10 MINUTES
THEMES: AUTOMATIC WEAPONS CONTROL, LACK OF MORAL WILL, RUN HIDE FIGHT.
SYNOPSIS: A terrifying look, at the kitchen table, at what we have wrought in our failure to exert gun control and put the onus on school kids to be safe.
FINALIST
2022 DURANGO ARTS CENTER 10 MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL, DURANGO, COLORADO, (People's Choice in pre-production reading)
SHORT LISTED / SEMIFINALIST
- 2020 THE CHAMELEON THEATRE CIRCLES 21ST ANNUAL NEW PLAY CONTEST, MINNESOTA
- 2020 STAGE IT! 10 MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL, CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS BONITA SPRINGS, FLORIDA
- 2021 SHORT+SWEET PERTH INTERNATIONAL CONTEST, PERTH, AUSTRALIA
- 2021 SHORT+SWEET DUBAI INTERNATIONAL CONTEST, DUBAI, UAE
- 2021 BROWARD UNIVERSITY "BE THE CHANGE" FLORIDA PLAYWRIGHT COMPETITION, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA (Audience Favorite)
COMEDY, 10 MINUTES
FINALIST 2019 NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, VITERBO UNIVERSITY, WISCONSIN
FINALIST 2022 PINT SIZED PLAYS, REMARKABLE THEATRE, QUEENSTOWN, NZ
PRODUCED:
- 2019 CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, BONITA SPRINGS FL
- 2020 SOCIAL DISTANCED PLAY FESTIVAL, ZOOM & YOUTUBE
- 2022 VAUDEVILLE THEATRE, SAN DIEGO, CA
Every flier’s nightmare seat mate, an economy airplane passenger and her service dog test another full fare flier’s good will, the airline’s rules, and a flight attendant’s patience. She almost gets away with her rude behavior, but the flight attendant has the last word.
COMEDY/SATIRE - 12 MINUTES
THEMES: LIVING WAGE; TAX EVASION; WHITE PRIVILEGE; DNA TESTING
A hoity-toity couple figure their application to the country club is in the bag. But they deny their overworked housekeeper a promised raise, so she pairs up with the family dog to spoil the deal.
PRODUCED:
2020, CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, BONITA SPRINGS, FL.
COMEDY, 10 MINUTES
THEMES: ENVIRONMENT; AGEISM; GLOBAL WARMING
SYNOPSIS: To solve the problem of mounting solid waste, the Government implements a macabre, but practical, solution that transfers “disposables” to the Soylent Green Plant.
FINALIST: 2021 BROWARD COLLEGE "TAKE TEN" FLORIDA PLAYWRIGHT COMPETITION (Audience Favorite)
EXTINCTION REBELLION (UK) CREATIVE HUB
COMEDY Running 12 minutes
THEMES: AGEISM; INFIDELITY; VANITY
SYNOPSIS: Laura kvetches about aging and ageism. Her complaining drives Jeff to audition and cast a replacement wife which blind sides their son and enacts Laura's melodramatic death wish.
SHORT LISTED:
- 2019 KING'S SHORTS FESTIVAL OF TEN MINUTE PLAYS, KING'S THEATRE, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA
- 2021 SHORT+SWEET PERTH
- 2021 SHORT+SWEET DUBAI
PRODUCED 2019, CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, BONITA SPRINGS, FLORIDA
COMEDY, 10 MINUTES
THEMES: DIVERSITY, WHITE PRIVILEGE, JUNETEENTH
SYNOPSIS: A committee of three White men plan a Diversity Day celebration at D’Nile’s warehouse. A 4th committee member, alien Bobbye who is inscrutable and androgynous, challenges their assumptions as a foil for the men’s cluelessness and beliefs about race, disabilities, sexual preference and gender.
STAGE READ 2020 CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, BONITA SPRINGS, FL
COMEDY 10 MINUTES
THEMES: AGEISM, HEALTH CARE, MARIJUANA LAWS
Seniors experience the pitfalls of medical marajuana.
Successes
OTHER PRIORITIES is a finalist to be produced by the Durango Arts Council, Colorado in October, 2022. The play was People's Choice winner in a staged reading to select the final 5 plays.
Infrequent Fliers is a finalist in North Park Playwright Festival, San Diego, CA. Produced October, 2022. Directed by Suzanne Morse.
Infrequent Fliers is a Finalist in New Zealand's Remarkable Theatre's Pint Sized Plays. Playing in NZ pubs May 5 - 8, 2022; People's Choice May 5, 2022.
DISPOSABLES was selected by EXTINCTION REBELLION (UK) and is posted on its CREATIVE HUB. January 2022
Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse. Extinction Rebellion was established in the United Kingdom in May 2018 by Gail Bradbrook, Simon Bramwell and Roger Hallam, along with 8 other co-founders from the campaign group Rising Up!
TIGER'S HEART THEATRE (NYC) PRODUCED INFREQUENT FLIERS January, 2022