Dominique Morisseau Named Honorary Playwright of Samuel French Short Play Festival

Samuel French's Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (OOB) has announced that Dominique Morisseau (Pipeline, Ain't Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations) will be the honorary festival playwright for the festival's 45th year. The 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 of City Theatre in Miami).

This year's top 30 playwrights were chosen from over 500 submissions from the US 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.

The finalists are listed 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

Originating in 1975, the OOB Festival is one of Samuel French's primary initiatives to introduce the next wave of emerging playwrights. Alums of the festival include Audrey Cefaly, Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok, Korde Arrington Tuttle, Bekah Brunstetter, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Sheila Callaghan, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman, and Steve Yockey.