The New School For Drama Students And Alumni Participate In Samuel French Fest For Third Year In A Row

The New School for Drama was well represented in the 34th Annual Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival, which took place this month at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in New York. Realer than that, written and directed by Kitt Lavoie ('01), was one of the six winners of this year's festival and will be published by Samuel French. The bus that got cut over its eye, written and directed by Matthew Paul Olmos ('04) advanced to the finals. This year, of the 40 plays selected for presentation, eight were works by New School for Drama students and alumni: Driving Kitty, written and directed by Suzanne Bachner ('97), American Royal, by Gabe McKinley ('09); Barron, CA, by Jessica Hinds ('10); the bus that got cut over its eye, by Olmos; Generation Graffiti, by Janine Nabers ('08); Metro Psalm by J. Julian Christopher ('05); realer than that written by Lavoie (who also directed semi-finalist Sharon E. Cooper's The Cooking King), and This is Jeopardy by Killian Beldy ('06).

"At The New School for Drama we encourage our students to take risks and be courageous in their work," said Robert LuPone, director of The New School for Drama. "These latest accomplishments reflect the talent of our students and are the voices of tomorrow's theater." Other New School students and alumni participated in this year's festival. In total, 39 members of The New School for Drama community participated as playwrights, directors, or actors.

Building on the successes of the The New School for Drama at the Samuel French festival, both institutions held a staged reading event honoring 2007 graduate Bekah Brunstetter. Brunstetter was one of the winners of the 33rd Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival last year for her play F*cking Art. To continue the relationship between Drama's playwrights and Samuel French, the two collaborated to present excerpts of Brunstetter's newest play, Oohrah!, for an invited audience of theater producers, literary agents, and guests. Oohrah! is now slated to premiere off-Broadway this September at Atlantic Theatre Company's Stage 2, directed by Evan Cabnet. Both The New School for Drama and Samuel French hope to make this collaboration an annual event, which will highlight and support the work of Drama's emerging alumni playwrights. Last year three plays by New School Drama students and alumni, out of six total, achieved top honors: Juniper; Jubilee by Janine Nabers ('08); F**king Art by Brunstetter (‘07), whose work Sick also took top prize in 2006; and The Grave by Gabe McKinley ('09) were licensed and published by Samuel French Inc.

Established in 1975, the Samuel French annual weeklong festival, culls its selections from nationwide submissions from playwriting workshops, university theatre programs, and professional companies. Forty productions were selected and presented to a panel of judges composed of playwrights, agents and Samuel French editorial staff, who then selected six finalists to have their works licensed and published by Samuel French, Inc.

At The New School for Drama, through its interrelated, three-year MFA program in acting, directing, or playwriting, the school is forging the next generation of dramatic artists. A faculty of working professionals brings to the fore each student's unique and original voice, and helps them establish a rooted sense of who they are as individuals and as artists. The New School's history in the dramatic arts began in the 1940s, when the Dramatic Workshop, led by founder Erwin Piscator and a faculty including Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, fostered artistic voices as distinctive as Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando. For more information, visit www.drama.newschool.edu.