2009 SPF Play Festival To Run At Public Theater 7/7-8/2 ; Submissions Now Being Accepted

Submissions are now being accepted by The Living Room for Artists for the sixth annual Summer Play Festival (SPF), which will be presented at The Public Theater in New York City for a second year, July 7 through August 2, 2009.

Submissions are open to all writers of plays and musicals across the globe, with or without representation.  There is no fee to submit. Last year over 1,000 submissions were received.

Application and submission guidelines are posted on the SPF website at www.spfnyc.com.  All applications must be submitted electronically.

Since its inception in 2004, SPF has produced over 70 original works, and has provided an opportunity for writers to present their material and craft in a protected environment, guided by established professionals, with full financial support.  SPF has had tremendous success in helping to identify talented, emerging artists, and many of our writers have enjoyed Broadway, off-Broadway, international and regional productions.  Others are now developing projects with film and television companies.

In the past year alone, several SPF alumni have had their work produced both on and Off-Broadway, as well as around the world including Quiara Hudes, SPF 2005 (In The Heights, Broadway), John Bucchino, SPF 2004 (A Catered Affair, Broadway), Brooke Berman, SPF 2004 (Hunting & Gathering, Primary Stages), Jim Knable, SPF 2006 (Spain, MCC), Anton Dudly, SPF 2004 (Substitution, SOHO Playhouse), Catherine Trieshman, SPF 2005 (Crooked, Julia Miles Theater) and J.T. Rogers, SPF 2005 (The Overwhelming, Roundabout Theatre Company).

In the coming year SPF alumni will continue to be seen across the US and the world, including Noah Haidle, SPF 2004 (Saturn Returns, Lincoln Center), Beau Willimon, SPF 2007 (Farragut North, Atlantic Theater Company), Jacquelyn Honess-Martin, SPF 2008 (Smith, The British Museum in London, England) and Jamie Pachino, SPF 2006 (Splitting Infinity, San Jose Rep).

Vist www.spfnyc.com for more information.

Biographies

The Living Room for Artists exists to both fuel the growth of emerging theatre artists and encourage people of all ages to create and enjoy the live theatre experience.  Its annual commitment to emerging theatre artists of all disciplines is represented in open calls for writers, directors, producers, stage managers and designers to work on the Summer Play Festival.  It has also partnered with The Donmar Warehouse in creating The Donmar Warehouse Residency Program, a yearly program that provides an opportunity for Festival writers to spend three weeks in residency at London’s famed theatre, where their plays are given a reading.   In addition, its relationships with theatre companies in the United States and Europe are being expanded to create opportunities of work, collaboration and networks in New York and throughout the world.

Summer Play Festival is an annual four-week festival that stages new plays and musicals by emerging writers during the summer months in New York City founded by Broadway producer Arielle Tepper Madover.  The first Summer Play Festival was presented in 2004.  A year later in 2005, The Living Room for Artists, Inc. was formed as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization to ensure that the Festival perpetuates its goals and whose central mission is to both fuel the growth of emerging theatre artists and encourage people of all ages to create, attend and work in the theatre.

Arielle Tepper Madover is a Tony Award winning Producer, who has produced theatre on and Off-Broadway since 1998, receiving 45 Tony nominations and 34 Olivier nominations.   She is currently represented on Broadway and the West End with Monty Python’s SPAMALOT, On Broadway the upcoming Mary Stuart and Equus, as well as the upcoming National Tour of Frost/Nixon. Other Broadway credits include: Frost/Nixon, The Pillowman, Democracy, A Raisin in the Sun, Jumpers, Hollywood Arms, A Class Act, James Joyce’s The Dead, John Leguizamo’s Freak, Sandra Bernhard’s I’m Still Here..Damn It and George C. Wolfe’s Harlem Song. Other West End credits include: Frost/Nixon, Guys & Dolls, Mary Stuart, A Voyage Round My Father and Sunday in the Park with George.  She has also produced Bounce by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman directed by Harold Prince. Off- Broadway includes the long running De La Guarda, “ Villa Villa”, The Last Five Years, Goodnight Children Everywhere, originally produced at The Royal Shakespeare Company, and the US National tour and Vegas production of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT.  Mrs. Madover formed “The Living Room for Artists” a not for profit which also founded SPF, the Summer Play Festival for emerging writers, which just completed its fifth year.  SPF has a relationship with the Donmar Warehouse through its Playwright Residency Program. In 2001 she created The Tepper Center for Careers in Theatre, which provides opportunities for college seniors to develop specific strategies for pursuing their career goals in the entertainment industry, as well as a theatre program for second graders at The Dalton School.  Mrs. Madover is a member of the Board of Trustees at Syracuse University and The Dalton School and a member of The League of American Theaters and Producers. 

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 40 Tony Awards, 141 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.

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