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Annual Festival Displays Fresh Talent
Samuel French Short Play Festival to award six winners
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The Samuel French Inc. Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival is a New York tradition that has been taking place for 34 years. This year the festival, running July 14–19 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, will feature 40 short plays performed before a panel of judges with the final prize being six winners having their plays published by Samuel French, Inc.
The festival, New York’s oldest continuous short play festival, draws competitors spanning the globe and is unique in that it requires submission of the written text as well as collaboration and performance of the piece by a producing organization. The end product is a week of night-time performances that culminate in a Sunday festival final running all day and rewarding those works that judges find particularly evocative.
The judging duties this year belong to a group of well-respected agents, playwrights and Samuel French editorial staff. Amongst these playwrights are Charles Busch (Psycho Beach Party), Jordan Harrison (Doris to Darlene), Leslie Lee (Colored People’s Time), and Billy Van Zandt (Love, Sex and the I.R.S.). The winners, many of who have gone on to become successful and prominent playwrights themselves, hope to be honored by the community in which they seek to join. Tickets to the festival are $18 and can be purchased at www.ticketcentral.com or by calling (212) 279-4200.