Thirty playwrights, selected from over 500 submissions, have been named finalists for the 2020 Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival from Samuel French. Originally scheduled to take place this August at the Vineyard Theatre, there will be no performances due to the ongoing public health crisis.
The six winners will be chosen through reading evaluation, by a lineup of judges that includes playwrights Will Arbery, George Brant, Larissa Fasthorse, Nambi E. Kelley, Kimber Lee, Madhuri Shekar, and Karen Zacarías, as well as Nan Barnett, the executive director of National New Play Network, and Susan Westfall, the co-founder of City Theatre in Miami.
Tony-nominated playwright Dominique Morisseau (Skeleton Crew, Pipeline, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations) is this year’s honorary festival playwright.
Check out the lists of finalists and their plays below.
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
The Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival was founded in 1975. Alumni playwrights include Jeremy O. Harris, Martyna Majok, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman, Gracie Gardner, and Korde Arrington Tuttle.
Samuel French will make a donation to the Vineyard Theatre in lieu of the rental fee this year.
