Red Bull Theater Seeking Six Works for 2017 Short New Play Festival

Red Bull Theater today announced that their seventh annual festival of 10-minute plays of heightened language and classic themes will feature two brand new commissions from Dael Orlandersmith and Arthur Kopit, alongside six brand new plays chosen from hundreds of submissions from playwrights across the country. The 2017 Short New Play Festival will be Monday July 24th (7:30pm) at Lucille Lortel Theatre. Submissions will now be accepted for the six remaining slots.

Six brand-new short plays will be selected from an open submission process and presented in staged readings performed by great actors alongside new short plays by two commissioned writers, Arthur Kopit (Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, Wings, Nine) and Dael Orlandersmith (Beauty's Daughter, Yellowman).

Each year, the company selects new works of heightened language and classical themes from today's top established and emerging playwrights. Plays will be selected based on: relevance to Red Bull's mission; incorporation of this year's theme, "Delusions of Grandeur;" and excellence.

Using the theme "Delusions of Grandeur" write a short play of no more than 10 minutes in length that makes use of any, or all, of the following: heightened language or verse; a classical theme or style; a classical story. Deadline is 12 Noon on Saturday April 29th. Selected plays will receive a staged reading performance in the festival on Monday July 24, 2017, directed by Craig Baldwin and Evan Yionoulis, performed by a company of some of New York's finest actors. Selected writers will receive a commissioning fee of $270 plus a travel reimbursement of up to $250 to attend the festival rehearsal and performance. Red Bull Theater will request the presence at the festival of the selected writers.

The 2017 Short New Play Festival is made possible by the generous support of The Noël Coward Foundation.

Red Bull Theater's annual Short New Play Festival, now entering its 7th season, has generated over 1,000 new short plays of classic themes and heightened language, presenting nearly 50 of them in a one-night only Festival performance with some of New York's finest actors and directors. In its first six years, the commissioned playwrights have been: Lee Blessing, Constance Congdon, Lisa D'Amour, Elizabeth Egloff, Amy Freed, David Grimm, John Guare, David Ives, Ellen McLaughlin, Peter Oswald, ReGina Taylor and Anne Washburn. Winners of the open submission competition have included: Kate Abbruzzese, Liz Duffy Adams, Mike Anderson, Heidi Armbruster, Matt Barbot, Dave Carley, Dipika Guha, Arthur Holden, Will Kenton, Anchuli Felicia King, Sam Lahne, Tabia Lau, Patricia Ione Lloyd, Wendy MacLeod, Stephen Massicotte, Dakin Matthews, ElizaBeth Miller, Winter Miller, Mark O'Donnell, Eric Pfeffinger, Jason Gray Platt (twice!), Bridgette Dutta Portman (twice!), Lynn Rosen (twice!), Tom Rowan, Aubrey Saverino, Natalia Savvides, Jen Silverman, Tommy Smith, James Still, Emily Taplin Boyd, Matthew Wells, and Tim West.

Steele Spring Stage Rights has recently published two collections featuring the best of Red Bull Theater's annual Short New Play Festival as "RedBull Shorts," with a third volume due to be released this winter. With forewords by Patrick Page, Michael Urie, and Jan Maxwell, these delightful books (available on Amazon) contain nearly 50 great (and greatly varied) new short plays for reading and performance pleasures.

Up next on the mainstage: The Government Inspector, directed by Jesse Berger, which will open this Spring at the Duke on 42nd Street. All politics are local. Gogol's deeply silly satire of small-town corruption offers a riotous portrait of rampaging self-delusion. When the crooked leadership of a provincial village discovers that an undercover inspector is coming to root out their commonplace corruption, the town weaves a web of bribery, lies, and utter madness. This New York Premiere of acclaimed playwright Jeffrey Hatcher's (Stage Beauty) adaptation offers a hilarious reminder of the timelessness of bureaucracy and buffoonery. Cast and design team, as well as performance schedule, will be announced shortly. Member tickets are available now. Single tickets will go on sale in April.

Red Bull Theater is the not-profit Off-Broadway theater company specializing in plays of heightened language. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, Red Bull Theater embraces the imagination of theatergoers through intimate, imaginative productions of great classic stories from all eras and cultures.

Red Bull Theater has previously staged productions of Pericles, The Revenger's Tragedy, Edward the Second, Women Beware Women, The Duchess of Malfi, The Witch of Edmonton, The Maids, The Dance of Death, Loot, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Volpone, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, The Changeling, The School For Scandal, as well as this past fall's hit production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus at the Barrow Street Theatre.

Red Bull Theater's work has been recognized with multiple Drama Desk, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Callaway and OBIE Award nominations and awards, including the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival in the 2015-'16 season (School for Scandal). The company has staged nearly 150 Revelation Readings, named by the Village Voice "Best Play Reading Series," also developing new plays of heightened language and classical adaptations through workshops and offering educational programs for students of all ages. Post-play Bull Session discussions with scholars following select Sunday matinees and Readings are free and open to the public.

Red Bull Theater offers Master Classes throughout the year. Taught by top working professionals including Kathleen Chalfant, John Douglas Thompson, Olympia Dukakis, Heidi Griffiths, and Patrick Page, Red Bull Theater's intensives and workshops cover a variety of disciplines, including auditioning, text, voice, movement, clowning, stage combat, and acting Shakespeare. Classes are open to adults at all levels of training or experience. They range from one to four days with limited class sizes to allow one-on-one attention. You can enroll in any combination of classes, or take the whole series for a year-long training experience.

For more information about the Short New Play Festival or any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.

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