Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Fest Announces Top 30 Playwrights

Samuel French's Off Off-Broadway Short Play Festival (OOB), the nation's premier short play competition, is excited to open 2019 ticket sales with an announcement of this year's Top 30 playwrights.

Chosen from over 900 submissions from the U.S. and abroad, these 30 writers will present their plays and musicals during a week-long festival, August 20-24. All performances will take place at the Vineyard's Dimson 15th Street Theatre in New York City. For a complete list of this year's Top 30, see the list at the end of this release.

The OOB Festival kicks off on Tuesday, August 20. During each weekday performance, a panel of distinguished industry 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 will also be offering 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 Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Sheila Callaghan, Bekah Brunstetter, Steve Yockey, Gloria Calderón Kellett and Korde Arrington Tuttle.

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 FINALISTS

• Cluck Deluxe by Bonnie Antosh
• The Dark by Serena Berman
• Blue by Emily Hageman
• On A String by LyaNisha R. Gonzalez
• Winner by Amy Berryman
• A Rare Bird by Bella Poynton
• Partner Of - by Rachael Carnes
• Webster's Bitch by Jacqueline Bircher
• All of the Everything by Alayna Jacqueline
• The War Show by Lindsey Griffith
• Mama Won't Stay Dead by Charlotte Higgins
• CrossTalk by Eliana Pipes
• The Garden of Eden, on a Beautiful Day by Emily J. Daly
• Stay for Dinner by Becky McLaughlin
• Last Girls Trip by Dusty Noval
• I LOVE YOU ST. PETERSBURG! by Bixby Elliot
• Where the Fireworks Come From by Michael Pisaturo
• Bunkmates by Jeff Ronan
• End of the Line by Howard Ho (Book), Chris Edgar (Lyrics), Kristen Rea
• Gun Play by Dale Dunn
• Eight Twenty-Eight by Kevin Rich
• Perfectly Normal by J. Joseph Cox
• There's Room on Top by Richard Sebastian-Coleman
• Tidwell, or the Plantation Play by Rodney Witherspoon II
• The Bar Mitzvah of Jesus Goldfarb by Andrew R. Heinze
• Maybe by Nicholas Vasilios Pappas
• A small breach in protocol at Big Rick's Rockin' Skydive Academy by Daniel Hirsch
• ROUND by Johnny G. Lloyd
• Ground Chuck by Benjamin Carr
• Blanche in a Wheelchair by Aaron Leventman

Samuel French is the world's leading publisher and licensor of plays and musicals. The company's catalog features some of the most acclaimed work ever written for the stage and titles by writers at the forefront of contemporary drama. Samuel French is proud to have served as a leader in theatrical publishing and licensing for over 180 years. In December, Samuel French became part of Concord Theatricals. With a growing staff of unparalleled experts, Concord Theatricals will support and grow Samuel French's ethos of championing playwrights, innovating in the industry, and celebrating all those who create theatre around the world.

Concord Theatricals is the world's most significant theatrical agency, comprised of R&H Theatricals, The Musical Company, Tams-Witmark and Samuel French. Concord Theatricals is the only firm that provides truly comprehensive services to the creators and producers of plays and musicals under a single banner, including theatrical licensing, music publishing, script publishing, cast recording and first-class production.

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