Winners Announced for Concord Theatricals' 49th Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival

Concord Theatricals has announced the winners of the 2024 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival (OOB), the nation’s premier short play competition. The six plays will be published and available for licensing by Concord Theatricals via its Samuel French imprint in the 49th edition of its Off Off Broadway Festival Plays series, an anthology of short plays. The winning plays are A Neo-Vagina Monologue by Aster Aguilar, Pilloried by Jillian Blevins, A Mercy At Midnight Castle by Phillip Gregory Burke, Data Queen by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, Beethoven’s Third by Howard Ho, and A Definitive Ranking of My Closest Friends by Jay Stalder.

The top 30 playwrights were chosen from 850 submissions worldwide, and then narrowed down to the six prize spots. The lineup of judges included playwrights Liza Birkenmeier, Nathan A. Davis, Julia Izumi, Jiehae Park, Theresa Rebeck, and Madhuri Shekar, along with executive director of National New Play Network Nan Barnett, artistic director of City Theatre Miami Margaret Ledford, artistic director of Page 73 Michael Walkup, associate artistic director of Playwrights Realm Alexis Williams, artistic director of Fire This Time Festival Cezar Williams, and co-executive director of the Dramatists Guild Emmanuel Wilson.

Originating in 1975, the OOB Festival is one of Concord Theatricals’ primary initiatives to introduce the next wave of emerging playwrights, such as 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 and was nominated for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Play. Other notable past participants include Bekah Brunstetter, Gloria Calderón Kellett, Sheila Callaghan, khat knotahaiku, Gracie Gardner, Jeremy O. Harris, Shirley Lauro, Theresa Rebeck, Jen Silverman, and Steve Yockey.