Honorable Mention – Flash 405, June 2018: “Nature”
Screenplay
Judge’s Comments:
Monsanto’s piece is real and of the moment in the most tragic possible way. It takes gun violence in the public space, something that has become all too quotidian and something we see so often we almost become numb to, and turns it into a reality so disturbing we have to feel something about it. Beyond the ways it makes us think about the current nature of our American reality, there’s a great dynamic between the characters—Thomas’s nonchalance versus Chrissy’s paranoia, however justified—which speaks to the polarities of our country at the moment.
Kayla Monsanto is a soon-to-be graduate of the University of Central Florida. Upon graduation, she will receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts in English-Creative Writing with a minor in Cinema Studies. When not in school, she lives in sunny South Florida with her two dogs, Sammy and Brady.