Jason Robert Brown, Israel Horovitz & Jeff Baron to Judge First International Jewish Play Contest

Five plays - one about a young woman's coming of age at the intersection of the Jewish and American communities; one about the friendship between the actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson and Soviet Jews during WWII; one about a feisty, successful Yiddish actress who fiercely guards her agonizing secrets from a zealous director; one about love and scandal in the 1921 Yiddish Art Theater's production of Ansky's "The Dybbuk"; and one which takes place during 1945 at the closing of WWII in the Jewish neighborhood of Saratoga Springs known as "Gut" -- have been chosen as the finalists in first-ever National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's [NYTF] International David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest.

NYTF Executive Director Bryna Wasserman is thrilled about the contest. "As we celebrate our Centennial Season, it's crucial for new voices of the stage to be heard," she said. "To encourage creativity in the arts, especially within the Jewish and Yiddish culture is more important now than ever. We're in the business of creating art for the new century--which also happens to be our slogan."

The winner's script will be judged in February during a 30-minute table reading at Manhattan Theatre Club Studios by an all-star Blue Ribbon Panel of Tony-Award winning and Broadway producing playwrights, producers and directors. They include Tony Award-winning Broadway veteran producer Manny Azenberg; playwright and TV series writer Jeff Baron; Tony Award-winning composer lyricist and orchestrator Jason Robert Brown; playwright and Pulitzer Prize Finalist Jon Marans; Associate Artistic Director of The Public Theater, Mandy Hacket; and Drama Desk Award Winning Playwright, Israel Horovitz

"It's truly such an honor to have this esteemed group of entertainment professionals adjudicate our contest," said Christopher Massimine, Executive Producer of NYTF. "We've had such a wonderfully eclectic and extensive volume of submissions and are excited to see the winner move into the next phase of development."

The contest is in conjunction with NYTF's highly-anticipated Centennial Celebration Festival- KulturfestNYC, which is when the finalist will have his or her play professionally presented to a public audience on an International scale. KulturfestNYC, will be hosted in New York City from June 14-22, 2015 and will include hundreds of Yiddish performances from artists all over the world.

The award-winning National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is the oldest professional Yiddish theatre in the world and the longest consecutively-producing Jewish Arts organization. The David and Clare Rosen Memorial Play Contest is chaired by Judith Friedman Rosen, PhD and organized by producer and casting director Jamibeth Margolis.

The five Finalists and playwrights are:

· BACKSTAGE - Ernie Jeselovitz of Rockville, MD, has received Best New Play awards in both Philadelphia and Metro D.C. His plays have been produced in New York City and throughout the rest of the country. Most recently, his adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped" premiered at Peoples Light and Theatre Company, and his musical libretto with songs by P.G. Wodehouse and Jerome Kern, "'Til the Clouds Roll By," was work-shopped by the Roundhouse Theatre Company. His plays are published by Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service, and Dramatic Publishing.

· WHEN BLOOD RAN RED - Ben Gonshor of Montreal, Canada, first appeared onstage with the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre at the age of 5 and has been a lifelong member ever since, including lead roles in "On 2nd Avenue" and "The Dybbuk." Notably, at the age of 8, he played the part of young Davey in the company's adaptation of Ted Allan's "Lies My Father Told Me" and returned two decades later to play the part of Davey again, now as the adult narrator, in the company's original musical adaptation of Allan's classic tale. As a playwright he wrote the book for the original musical, "Houdini," which had its premiere at the Segal Centre and was also performed at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. He holds an M.F.A. in Motion Picture Producing from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.

· THE LAST ACT - Ethan Sirotko of Brooklyn, NY, has written several plays, screenplays, books of poetry, and a book of short stories. He has acted in Off-Broadway productions and created a new definition of the micro-second when he appeared in the TV soap opera, "Search For Tomorrow." In addition, Sirotko is also an undercover trial attorney and photographer, and founded a photo card company, called ESPhotos. He lovingly dedicates this play, "The Last Act," to his mother Dinah, who loved and laughed and danced and cried in a world that was often fierce.

· HUNGRY HEARTS - Connie Bennett of Eugene, OR, wrote "Hungry Hearts," based on the novel by Francine Prose, as her first full length play and her first New York opportunity. Bennett began writing plays in 2008; since then her 10-minute plays have been produced in Oregon, Washington, California, Michigan, and Canada. In 2010, her "Gray Reflections" was a finalist for the National Ten Minute Play Contest (Humana Festival). She recently completed "Mother/Tongue," a play about the Mexican heroine/traitor La Malinche, for 365 Women a Year: A Playwriting Project. Bennett is Executive Producer and co-Founder of the Northwest Ten, a festival of ten minute plays hosted annually by the Oregon Contemporary Theatre, now in its seventh year. She curated Step Into Theatre, a 2013 City of Eugene parking garage installation, where her one-minute "Shall We Play?" is part of third floor directional signage.

· GUTMUSIK - Both Eva Dolan and Joseph V. DiPietro currently reside in Farmingdale, NY. Prior to moving to there, DiPietro worked as a firefighter in New York City and studied writing at the Gotham Writers Workshops in New York. He went on to create screenplays, including "Weissgarten" and "Belle and You Bet Your Life," and has also published several articles related to baseball and other topics. Dolan, a Saratoga Springs native, has been working professionally in the arts world since the late 90's. She and DiPietro came together to create "Gutmusik," which is also Dolan's first full length script.

For more information about the playwriting contest or National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, please visit www.nytf.org or call (212) 213- 2120.