Lauren Yee Is This Year's Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival Honorary Festival Playwright

Samuel French's Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (OOB), the nation's premier short play competition, is excited to announce that Lauren Yee (Cambodian Rock Band, The Great Leap, The Hatmaker's Wife) is this year's honorary festival playwright. Additionally, the distinguished lineup of judges will include Masi Asare, Eleanor Burgess, Clarence Coo, Vichet Chum, Chris Giordano, Keli Goff, David L. Kimple, Margaret Ledford, Emily Morse, Salem Tsegaye, Miriam Weiner and Alexis Williams.

The OOB will take place during a week-long festival August 20-24 at the Vineyard's Dimson 15th Street Theatre in New York City. Chosen from over 900 submissions from the U.S. and abroad, 30 finalist plays and musicals, each running 10-20 minutes in length, will be presented. (See below for finalists and schedule.)

Yee will kick off the Festival at a private event with the 30 finalist playwrights on Monday, August 19. During each weekday performance from Tuesday, August 20, the judges will choose one to four plays to move on to the finals. These finalists will present their plays and musicals on Saturday, August 24, at which time the Samuel French staff will select the winning six pieces. These short works will be published and made available for licensing in an anthology that will become the 44th edition of the Off Off Broadway Festival Plays series.

Presale tickets are available through Sunday, August 18 at $20. Tickets will be available Monday, August 19 through Saturday, August 24 online and at the door for $25. The Festival also offers a $90 Festival Pass. This pass gains the holder access to the first four nights of the Festival, allowing them to see all 30 productions at a 55% discount. For tickets and a complete performance calendar, click here.

Originating in 1975, the OOB Festival is one of Samuel French's primary initiatives to introduce the next wave of emerging playwrights. In the 44 years of the OOB Festival, over 550 theatre companies and schools have participated. Applicants have included companies from coast to coast as well as from Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The Festival has served as a doorway to future success for many aspiring playwrights. These include Audrey Cefaly, whose full-length version of her 40th OOB Festival-winning play The Gulf won 2018's Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBTQ Drama, and Martyna Majok, whose play The Cost of Living (originally produced as part of 39th OOB Festival as John, Who's Here from Cambridge) won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Other notable past participants include Korde Arrington Tuttle, Bekah Brunstetter, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Sheila Callaghan, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman and Steve Yockey.

To stay up to date with all Festival information, follow @OOBFestival on Twitter, facebook.com/oobfestival, and #OOBFestival on all social platforms.

The 44th Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival schedule:

Tuesday, August 20 at 7:00PM

THE GARDEN OF EDEN, ON A BEAUTIFUL DAY by Emily J. Daly

WHERE THE FIREWORKS COME FROM by Michael Pisaturo

THE BAR MITZVAH OF JESUS GOLDFARB by Andrew R. Heinze

Tuesday, August 20 at 8:30PM

CLUCK DELUXE by Bonnie Antosh
BUNKMATES by Jeff Ronan
ROUND by Johnny G. Lloyd
WEBSTER'S BITCH by Jacqueline Bircher

Wednesday, August 21 at 7:00PM

END OF THE LINE Book by Howard Ho, Lyrics by Chris Edgar, Music by Kristen Rea
ON A STRING by LyaNisha R. Gonzalez
MAYBE by Nicholas Vasilios Pappas
THE WAR SHOW by Lindsey Griffith

Wednesday, August 21 at 8:30PM

THE DARK by Serena Berman
PARTNER OF- by Rachael Carnes
WINNER by Amy Berryman
I LOVE YOU ST. PETERSBURG! by Bixby Elliot

Thursday, August 22 at 7:00PM

TIDWELL, OR THE PLANTATION PLAY by Rodney Witherspoon II
BLUE by Emily Hageman
MAMA WON'T STAY DEAD by Charlotte Higgins

Thursday, August 22 at 8:30PM

GROUND CHUCK by Benjamin Carr
LAST GIRLS TRIP by Dusty Noval
EIGHT TWENTY-EIGHT by Kevin Rich
STAY FOR DINNER by Becky McLaughlin

Friday, August 23 at 7:00PM

A SMALL BREACH IN PROTOCOL AT BIG RICK'S ROCKIN' SKYDIVE ACADEMY by Daniel Hirsch
ALL OF EVERYTHING by Alayna Jacqueline
A RARE BIRD by Bella Poynton
THERE'S ROOM ON TOP by Richard Sebastian-Coleman

Friday, August 23 at 8:30PM

BLANCHE IN A WHEELCHAIR by Aaron Leventman
GUN PLAY by Dale Dunn
PERFECTLY NORMAL ENTERPRISES by J. Joseph Cox
CROSSTALK by Eliana Pipes

Saturday, August 24 at 2:00PM

First set of Finalists (TBD)

Saturday, August 24 at 4:30PM

Second set of Finalists (TBD)

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