The Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival has named Jen Silverman this year's Honorary Festival Playwright. Poised to make their Broadway debut this season with The Roommate, Silverman is a 2009 OOB Festival winner.
Judges for this year's competition will include playwrights Liza Birkenmeier, Nathan A. Davis, Julia Izumi, Jiehae Park, Theresa Rebeck, and Madhuri Shekar, plus National New Play Network Executive Director Nan Barnett, City Theatre Miami Artistic Director Margaret Ledford, Page 73 Artistic Director Michael Walkup, Playwrights Realm Associate Artistic Director Alexis Williams, Fire This Time Festival Artistic Director Cezar Williams, and Dramatists Guild Co-Executive Director Emmanuel Wilson.
That judging panel will select six winning works from 10-12 finalists. Thirty total works will vie for those finalist spots, all selected from 850 submissions. Works will be performed at the week-long festival August 13-17 at The Vineyard's Dimson Theatre. The final winners will be published and licensed by Concord Theatricals via their Samuel French imprint.
This year's competing works are A Neo-Vagina Monologue by Aster Aguilar, Pilloried by Jillian Blevins, A Mercy At Midnight Castle by Phillip Gregory Burke, The Issue by Jennifer Crittenden, stuffed by Claire Dettloff, Kaylee and Adelyn by Elizabeth Shannon Ellis, Data Queen by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, Yom Kippur Abortion by Shira Gorelick, Tourist Trap by Elijah Guo, Sanctuary by Alyssa Haddad-Chin, Happy Havens Church of Higher Enlightenment by Paris Herbert-Taylor, Beethoven’s Third by Howard Ho, Figment of Manifestation by Christine Hoang, Runaway Girl by Mo Holmes, Blood and Coal Dust by Arthur M. Jolly, Vape Lord by Manning Jordan, fire / fight by Drayla Kasheen, Southies by Jeffrey James Keyes, Are You My Last Stop by T.J. L, Modelland by Aidan La Poche, Louisiana Shoal by Mildred Inez Lewis, Bad Horses by Martin Murray, Do You Party? by Megan Rivkin, Shoptalk by TyLie Shider, sundays in the park with clay & cher by SMJ, A Definitive Ranking of My Closest Friends by Jay Stalder, Brave People by Allan Staples, mudder by Rachel Tookey, MOLTING by Michael Towers, and Hutch by Charles White.
The works will be performed over 10 sessions, each presenting 3-6 short plays. Individual pre-sale tickets are currently available, along with a Festival Pass that gives access to all sessions and the closing party. Tickets and a full schedule are at OOBFestival.com.
The annual festival, which was first held in 1975, aims to introduce the next wave of emerging playwrights. Previous winners have included Martyna Majok for Cost of Living and Audrey Cefaly for The Gulf.
