Don Orwald

BUTLER TWP — A benefit performance will be held July 17 with one-act plays penned by award-winning playwright and Butler native Don Orwald.

Orwald, who now lives in Granbury, Texas, will host “An Evening of One-Act Plays” at Butler County Community College’s Succop Theater to benefit the Mary Jo Mohn-Covert Endowed Scholarship Fund, which raises money for theater students at BC3.

The plays, staged as a reader’s theater, will include “Hammett and Hellman,” “Gypsies, Jews and a Note to Anne Frank,” and “Monumental Men,” all written by Orwald.

All roles will be played by five area actors: Tatum Boccardi, Mark Nutter, Kim Nutter, Gabe Stupka and Dean Weiland.

The producer is Morgan Mann, assisted by Danyle Verzinskie. Tricia Eichler is director, with Rikki Stupka as stage manager.

Orwald taught English and theater at Knoch High School in the South Butler School District for 31 years.

Since his retirement, he has become a playwright, winning first place in a recent Writers’ Digest competition and placing numerous times in the annual Pittsburgh New Works Festival.

His plays have been staged in many locations including the History Theatre in St. Paul, Minn., and the Roy Arias Studios in New York.

His most recent work about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, called “The Man in the Window,” was staged at last year’s Saxonburg Festival of the Arts.

The scholarship that will benefit from the July 17 activities was established several years ago to commemorate the life and memory of Mohn-Covert, a well-known theater colleague who died of cancer.

The scholarship is now endowed and has been awarded to several BC3 theater students during the past five years.

Tickets for the July 17 performances are $15 and available by calling 724-284-8505 or by visiting bc3.edu/theater.