12 Artistic Directors & Literary Agents Added To Judges Panel for Samuel French Play Festival

Twelve of theatre's most highly regarded artistic directors and literary agents and have been added to judging panel and will jury the 40 short plays featured in the 34th Annual Samuel French Inc. Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival beginning July 14th at Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (416 West 42nd Street). The week-long festival (concluding July 19th) features a full program of the selected plays performed for a panel of judges comprised of established playwrights, agents and Samuel French editorial staff. Six winners are chosen to have their plays licensed and published by Samuel French, Inc.

The artistic directors will include: Jan Buttram (Abingdon Theatre Company), Evans Haile (The Cape Playhouse), Julia Hansen (Aspen's Theater Masters), William Hayes (Palm Beach Dramaworks), Jeffrey Rosenstock (Queens Theatre in the Park) and Jim Simpson (The Flea Theater). Theatrical literary agents participating include: Elaine Devlin (Elaine Devlin Literary, Inc.), Derek Zasky (William Morris Endeavor), Ron Gwiazda (Abrams Artists Agency), Mark Subius (Subius) and Jessica Sarbo (The Gersh Agency).

This new roster of judges will join the previously announced playwright judges: Charles Busch (The Third Story, Psycho Beach Party, Die! Mommie! Die!), JorDan Harrison (Doris to Darlene, Amazons and Their Men), Arthur Kopit (Indians, Nine, Wings), Leslie Lee (The First Breeze of Summer, Black Eagles, Colored People's Time), Billy Van Zandt (Love, Sex and the I.R.S., Silent Laughter, The Property Known as Garland) and founding member of Split Britches Theater Company. Deb Margolin (Time is the Mercy of Eternity, Three Seconds in the Key), has also been added. (All judges are subject to change.)

The 40 plays presented in the festival have been chosen from over 700 submissions by playwriting workshops, university theatre programs, and professional companies from across the country.

Plays in the festival will be presented in daily multi-sessions as per the following schedule: Tuesday July 14th (7:30PM) The Cooking King, American Royal, Up With (Some) People - (9PM) Amphibians, Diving Kitty, We Semi-Solids Melting into Air, Metro Psalm; Wednesday July 15th (7:30PM) Airborne, Generation Graffiti, We Appear To Have Company - (9PM) Drop, Barron, CA, Humble Pie; Thursday July 16th (7:30PM) Yes, Yes, Yes, Thucydides, Just Knots - (9PM) Foreclosure, A Time Ripe and Rare, The Dorsal Striatum; Friday July 17th (7:30PM) Slutty Slutty Butterslut, Laying Off, Survival, I Can Tell Your Handbag is Fake - (9PM) the bus that got cut over its eye, Gilbert, Or Death by Obituary, Doll Play; Saturday July 18th (3PM) The Education of Macoloco, The Student, The Hardly Wonder - (4:30PM) Teddy Ballgame, Monday, (baptism), Mom Was a Carney - (7:30PM) This is Jeopardy, Free Play, The Monster - (9PM) Nine Point Eight Meters Per Second Per Second, Toad Suck, realer than that, H.R.; and on Sunday, July 19th festival finals will be scheduled at 1PM, 2:30PM, 4PM and 5:30PM. (Schedule subject to change.)

The Off Off Broadway Festival started in 1975 and is New York City's oldest continuous short play festival. Over 400 theatre companies and schools have participated in the Festival's first thirty-three years, including companies from coast to coast as well as abroad from Canada, UK and Asia. 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. Over the years, 181 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 ,the official festival blog at samuelfrenchoobfest.blogspot.com or follow the festival at www.twitter.com/oobfestival

Samuel French Inc. was founded in 1830 with offices in New York City, Los Angeles and London, and retail bookstores in Hollywood and Studio City, making it the oldest and largest publisher and licensor of plays in the world.

All tickets are $18. For more information and ticket purchase call Ticket Central (212) 279 -4200 or log onto www.ticketcentral.com. The 34th Annual Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival will run July 14th - July 19th at The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (416 West 42nd Street).