A staged reading of Mary Surratt, The True Story of a Civil War Combatant was held April 19, 2008 at the Lakewood Center for the Arts.

Written by Los Angeles playwright Ned O’Neill, the play was the winning submission in the Sixth Annual Playwright Competition presented by the Lake Oswego Foundation for the Arts and the Lakewood Theatre Company.

The play represents a contemporary dramatization of the trial of Mary Surratt who was hanged as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination because of her association with John Wilkes Booth. Characters representing Japanese interned during World War II and prisoners held at Guantanamo today draw historical parallels and add commentary about our society’s willingness to assign guilt by association in times of national crisis. Congratulations to Ned O’Neill for this accomplishment.

Start writing your plays for next year’s competition.