Samuel French has announced the winners of the 2021 Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
This year's winners, chosen from 750 submissions worldwide, are: All Things Considered, It Was Probably the Most Productive Meeting The Escondido Unified School District PTA Ever Had by A.J. Ditty, DOGS OF SOCIETY by Julia Grogan, By Grace, Pt. 2 by Agyeiwaa Asante, Grieved by Jahquale Mazyck, pearl apple penguin by Aisling Towl, and Kitchen Design by Suzanne Willett.
The six plays will be published and available for licensing by Samuel French in the 46th edition of its Off Off Broadway collection.
The judges, who chose the six winners after submissions had been whittled down to 30, included playwrights Dennis A. Allen II, Miranda Rose Hall, Trish Harnetiaux, 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist Zora Howard, and Harrison David Rivers, along with dramaturg Jeremy Stoller, National New Play Network Executive Director Nan Barnett, City Theatre Miami Artistic Director Margaret M. Ledford, and City Theatre Miami Co-Founder and Literary Director Susan Westfall.
“This year’s Top 30 plays were full of amazing stories and unique voices,” said OOB Festival Artistic Director Casey McLain. “While we missed seeing these pieces on the stage, we were more than excited to share them with the OOB audience and judges through our second virtual festival. The six plays chosen for the 46th OOB Festival publication are a great sample of the amazing work we saw this year.”
Originating in 1975, the OOB Festival is one of Samuel French's primary initiatives to introduce the next wave of emerging playwrights. The festival has served as a doorway to future success for many, including 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 Bekah Brunstetter, Eleanor Burgess, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Sheila Callaghan, khat knotahaiku, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman, Lauren Yee, and Steve Yockey.
