The title of the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society’s annual competition for aspiring playwrights, ‘Famous for 15 Minutes’, should probably be renamed ‘Famous for 30 Minutes’ this year, because Deborah Pharaoh has now won the coveted award for the second time.

Her two-character play, ‘Grass is Greener’, was one of six finalists competing for the award, and although people kept telling her her play would win, Miss Pharoah was not convinced.

“This year was a very strong one, and the scripts were really very good, so I didn’t have an expectation that I would win,” she says.

“The message mattered more to me, but the award would be the icing on the cake.”

Nonetheless, when the moment of truth came and it was announced that she had won, Miss Pharoah admits she was “blown away”.

“I was so excited and grateful because I wasn’t expecting it,” she says.

“The nice thing is, when you don’t expect to win, it is a beautiful surprise when you do. It was a thrill.”

She chose as the theme of ‘Grass is Greener’ the perceptions of race in the context of two women who went to school together and have remained very close friends all their lives. Jenelle was a black professional woman who had experienced a series of unsatisfactory relationships with men of her race, and thought white men must be better — hence the play’s title — whereas Lori was a white lawyer who had had her share of poor relationships with men of her own race and knew it was not about the colour of one’s skin.

The duo, relaxing over drinks in a bar, began talking about men, but the discussion widened to cover their various perceptions. The depth of their friendship allowed them to express themselves freely because they knew that, at the end of the day, nothing would destroy their long-standing friendship.

While Miss Pharoah declines to reveal the total plot because she is going to extend the 15-minute version into a full length play, she summarises the plot as one where “various perceptions and differences are explored, but in the end nothing holds a candle to what unites them as friends, which is the strongest bond of all”.

“As best friends they could hash these things out and still love each other at the end of the day,” she says.

“It was done with humour because nobody wants to be preached at. As similar as you think you are, there are always going to be some differences. Jenelle and Lori had gone to school together, grown up together, and had the same upbringing. Despite their differences, they were very proud of who and what they were. They could discuss the issues, laugh about them, and still learn from each other.”

In fact, the diversity of the “salsa family” in which she is happily involved provided some of the inspiration for ‘Grass is Greener’.

“They are such a diverse group of people — from different countries, different income brackets, different professions — yet all of that disappears when we have our salsa clothes on, and that is inspirational.

“The only way to move forward is to get people thinking and discussing, otherwise nobody is moving forward.”

Certainly audience reaction to what might have been construed as a sensitive subject was positive.

“The play went over very well because it wasn’t preachy. There were touching moments, and serious moments, but the characters’ friendship was tight the whole way through, and that was important to me,” its author said.

Aware that her play’s theme addressed a very large topic which could never be covered in 15 minutes, Miss Pharaoh said to meet the time challenge she used “tricks to move the story forward”, such as a scene break which left the audience to fill in some blanks, and the use of a photograph to quickly establish what someone looked like.

Her goal, as always, was to engage the audience and make it care.

“For all art to be good people need to feel something. The audience wants to care and go through some sort of journey or identify with the characters, and they should go away with something to think about and reflect on. No matter what they are feeling, if it sparks discussion that is a good thing,” she says.

Referring to her previous and present plays, Miss Pharoah says, “My themes have been ones that give you something to think about, which I think is part of our job as artists. They have been universal: alcoholism, fear of being lonely or unloved, family...”

In writing ‘Grass is Greener’, the winner said she had adopted a new modus operandi, “making an appointment with herself” to write daily from 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., in addition to jotting down ideas where and whenever they came to her at other times.

A Canadian citizen, Miss Pharoah works as a corporate administrator in a local law firm, and says theatre is “a passion”. No stranger to the milieu, she has worked both as an amateur and also professionally in Canada, and wants to do more acting here — but not at the expense of playwriting, which she was encouraged to continue by the visiting celebrity judge David Nairn, actor and artistic director of Theatre Orangeville in Canada. “If you have a gift it is your duty to use it,” she says.