45th Samuel French Off Broadway Short Play Festival Announces 30 Finalists – Dominique Morisseau Is This Year’s Honorary Festival Playwright

Samuel French’s Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (OOB),the nation’s premier short play competition,is excited to announce that Dominique Morisseau (Skeleton Crew, Pipeline, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations) is this year’s honorary festival playwright.

Additionally, the distinguished lineup of judges will include playwrights Will Arbery, George Brant, Larissa Fasthorse, Nambi E. Kelley, Kimber Lee, Madhuri Shekar and Karen Zacarías as well as Nan Barnett (Executive Director of National New Play Network) and Susan Westfall (Co-Founder City Theatre in Miami).

This year’s top 30 playwrights were chosen from over 500 submissions from the U.S. and abroad. Originally scheduled to take place this August at the Vineyard Theatre’s Dimson 15th Street Theatre, the performance aspect will be removed from the festival with the six winners chosen through reading evaluation only. The winners will be announced on Thursday, August 20 at a private online celebratory event. A donation will be made to the Vineyard Theatre in lieu of the rental fee.

THE 45TH SAMUEL FRENCH OFF OFF BROADWAY SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL FINALISTS

• A Christmas Pickle by Uma Incrocci
• Alligators, Minks + New Money by Danielle Eliska Lyle
• Beech. Oak. Iris. by Julianne Jigour
• Cara has a Hole in Her Head by Elise Wien
• Chimera by Haley Rice
• Closing Doors by John Minigan
• Crush by Krista Knight
• Drop by Caitlin Duffy
• First Born by Cristina Luzárraga
• He Misses by Patrick Vermillion
• I Didn’t Think You’d Be So Unhappy by Shara Feit
• Inevitable by Bethany Dickens
• Laces by Makaela Shealy
• Love and the Fear of It All by Andrew Rincón
• Masking Our Blackness by Vincent Terrell Durham
• Meditaysh by Veronika Gribanova
• My Body by Rachel Bublitz
• Party People by Lisa Mongillo
• Sincerely, Best Wishes, Regards by Gillian Beth Durkee
• Slow Jam by Caity-Shea Violette
• Testimony by Miranda Huba
• The Falling Man by Gethsemane Herron-Coward
• The Improv Class by John Connon
• The Remains by Andrew Piechota
• Three Anne Franks by Maya Macdonald
• Uncovering by Erin Mallon
• Voir Dire by Carissa Atallah
• We Are Wombats by Megan Chan Meinero
• We’re All Athletes by Seth McNeill
• You’re My Favorite by Jenny King

Originating in 1975, the OOB Festival is one of Samuel French’s primary initiatives to introduce the next wave of emerging playwrights. In the 45 years of the OOB Festival, over 550 theater 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 40^th 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 39^th OOB Festival as John, Who’s Here from Cambridge) won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Other notable past participants include Korde Arrington Tuttle, Bekah Brunstetter, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Sheila Callaghan, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman and Steve Yockey.

To stay up to date with all Festival information, follow @OOBFestival on Twitter, facebook.com/oobfestival, and #OOBFestival on all social platforms.