DirectorFest 2005 runs Dec. 8-11 at The 45th Street Theatre, 354 W. 45th Street in New York City.

According to Drama League, "DirectorFest 2005 offers an exciting glimpse into the future of American theatre by presenting one-act productions by four of the nation's most talented young directors."

This year’s bill consists of four new plays – Gary Sunshine's Kahn and Kant, directed by Michael Goldfried; Sung Rno's Drizzle, directed by Abigail Marateck, Elizabeth Meriwether's The Sketch Comedian, directed by Alex Timbers and Michael John Garces' Audio-video, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel.

Performances will be at 8 PM on Thursday, 8 PM on Friday, 2 PM and 8 PM on Saturday, and 3 PM on Sunday.

Noted Directors Project alumni include John Rando (Urinetown), Michael Mayer (After the Fall), Diane Paulus (The Donkey Show), Hal Brooks (Thom Pain), Mark Brokaw (Reckless, The Baltimore Waltz), James Bundy (Dean, Yale School of Drama), Carl Forsman (artistic director, Keen Company), R.J. Cutler (Emmy-Award winning director of the PBS documentary series "American High"), and Loretta Greco (producing artistic director, Women’s Project and Productions). DirectorFest 2005 is the culmination of the Fall Production Program of The Directors Project, the only career-development program for directors in the nation that guarantees an opportunity to direct a professional production.

Gary Sunshine's Kahn and Kant "is a comic fantasia about a closeted insomniac whose intellectual aspirations are exposed by the flamboyant fantasies (Judy Garland, Michelle Kwan) who invade his waking dreams." Director Michael Goldfried is a member of the first graduating class (2005) of the Brown University/Trinity Rep consortium. This fall, Goldfried assisted director Les Waters on Finn in the Underworld by Jordan Harrison at Berkeley Rep, and is now assisting Blanka Zizka on the premiere of Ariel Dorfman's The Other Side at Manhattan Theatre Club.

In Sung Rno's Drizzle, " a seemingly harmless coffee break takes a sharp turn when the conversation shifts to the Korean War. One man has a sinister past, and both realize that their futures will never be the same again." Director Abigail Marateck's Drama League fellowship took her to England, to the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she assisted director Sarah Esdaile on The Taming of the Shrew. She also had a residency at New Dramatists. Marateck received her BA from Vanderbilt University, and her MFA from Brooklyn College.

Elizabeth Meriwether's The Sketch Comedian is a new comedy about a young woman's first date with her hero — a semi-famous, self-loathing sketch comedian." The play will be directed by Alex Timbers, the artistic director of Les Freres Courbusier (producer of Boozy and A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant). Timbers' fellowship has led him to Broadway, for the new musical Jersey Boys, and he then assisted director Tony Taccone on Tony Kushner's and Maurice Sendak's Brundibar at Berkeley Rep. Timbers has a BA from Yale University, and is the recipient of Obie and Garland Awards.

Michael John Garces' Audio-video "is an intensely charged comedy that follows two outcast teenage boys who realize they've accidentally given their grandmother a homemade illicit video instead of the family trip to Yellowstone. (At least the audio was erased!)." Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel spent his fellowship in England assisting RSC director Dominic Cooke on two new American plays. He also did a literary residency at New York Theatre Workshop. von Stuelpnagel has a BFA in Theatre from Boston University.

General admission is $15. Industry members may reserve tickets at (212) 561-1419. For general public tickets, call (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com.