Samuel French Chooses Six Short Plays As Festival Winners

From a selection of 40 short plays, six plays have been chosen as the winning scripts from the  33rd Annual Samuel French Inc. Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival  which concluded yesterday, July 20th  at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (416 West 42nd Street). The winning scripts are:  The Dying Breed  by Thomas Higgins, The Thread Men by Thomas C. Dunn, Ayravana Flies or A Pretty Dish by Sheila Callaghan, F**king Art by Bekah Brunstetter, The Grave by Gabe McKinley and Juniper; Jubilee by Janine Nabers.  The scripts will be published as a collection and licensed by Samuel French Inc. The collection will be available for sale later this fall/winter.

The week-long festival featured a full program of the selected plays performed for audiences and a panel of judges comprised of  the following playwrights: Thomas Bradshaw (Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist; Purity), Kathleen Clark (Southern Comforts; Secrets Of A Soccer Mom) , Israel Horovitz  (Barking Sharks; My Old Lady) , Shirley Lauro (A Piece Of My Heart; Open Admissions), Eduardo Machado (The Cook; Kissing Fidel) and Jane Milmore (Love, Sex and the IRS; Confessions Of A Dirty Blonde). In addition, theatrical agents representing the following agencies: Beacon Artists Agency, The Gersh Agency, Bret Adams, Ltd., William Morris Agency, Abrams Artists Agency and International Creative Management, and Samuel French editorial staff also served on the judging committee.

The Off-Off Broadway Festival started in 1975 and is Manhattan's oldest continuous short play festival. Over 390 theatre companies and schools have participated in the Festival's first thirty years, including companies from coast to coast as well as abroad from Canada and England. This festival has served as a doorway to future success for many aspiring writers. Over the years, 175 submitted plays have been published, and many of the participants have become established, award-winning playwrights. For more information about the festival, plays, playwrights and participating companies, please visit the official festival website at www.samuelfrench.com/oobfestival. By requiring authors to collaborate with a producing organization and present their work in performance, Samuel French seeks to encourage the collaborative and creative process of playwriting. Samuel French Inc. was founded in 1830 with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and London, and retail bookstores in Hollywood and Studio City making it the oldest and largest publisher and licensor of plays in the world.