Out Of The Box Theatrics To Present Virtual New Works Play Festival

Founding Producing Artistic Director Liz Flemming and Out of the Box Theatrics (OOTB) have announced Off The Couch - a virtual new works play festival dedicated to OOTB's mission to diversify American theater by providing an inclusive and accessible platform for artists and patrons.

"It is our hope Off the Couch will provide a platform for writers working on scripts in the early stages of development while creating an artistic outlet for our artists and patrons," says Flemming. "During these challenging times we hope this series will excite our community and provide a sense of normalcy and hope during this time of isolation."

Through an open submission period three playwrights were chosen. Selected pieces include Ice-Fishing on Europa b y Timothy Baxter-Ferguson on May 7th and #Eternity by Lauren Jennings on May 14th. Kicking off the festival on April 29th at 7pm are two short pieces by Anthony Anello - Human Traffic Cone and little purple betta fish. All presentations are free to the public, but donations are encouraged.

"Anthony came to us through a referral within the OOTB community and it quickly became clear he would be a great collaborator," said Associate Artistic Director Ethan Paulini. "We are so happy to give our patrons a glimpse into a voice who we know you will be hearing from both on OOTB productions and beyond."

Anello's first piece to be presented is an excerpt from Human Traffic Cone featuring Alex Michell, Robyne Parrish, and Julia Bogdanoff. Benji (Michell) had an "incident." Not knowing what else to do, his mother, Jo (Parrish), pulls him out of high school and enlists his old babysitter (Bogdanoff) to watch after him during his indefinite house arrest. A play about the traffic cones we place on ourselves and each other.

The second piece, little purple betta fish, features Alex Michell and Robert H. Fowler as nephew and uncle. After months without speaking, a college student calls his uncle at three in the morning asking to interview him for a "school project."

The one hour live stream presentation will begin at 7pm EDT on OOTB's YouTube channel: Out of the Box Theatrics and will include a Q&A with the playwright. For more information, visit Out of the Box Theatrics's website: ootbtheatrics.com.

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