Spotlight on ‘Festival of Tens’ playwright Melanie Payne
The Laboratory Theater of Florida is presenting its first-ever festival of ten-minute plays this weekend. The Festival of Tens will showcase the work of five adult students who have studied with Lab Theater playwright Louise Wigglesworth for several years, vis: Linda Saether, Candice Sanzari, Patrick Erhardt, Nancy Stetson and Melanie Payne.
Lab Theater has previously produced a number of staged readings of Payne’s work, including Routine in 2018 and True Colors in 2016. Melanie is an investigative reporter with The News-Press/USA Today Network. In that capacity, she has exposed scams, corruption and bad deals. For more than a decade, she wrote the consumer column, Tell Mel. 
She has published two nonfiction books and is a nationally-ranked Scrabble player. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Melanie is a graduate of Wellesley College and has lived in Fort Myers since 2004.
The Festival of Tens also marks Melanie’s stage acting debut.
Festival of Tens performance will be at 8:00 p.m. on April 26 and 27 and at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 28. Tickets are available to purchase on Brownpapertickets.com or by calling the box office at 239-218-0481.
April 25, 2019.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.