Jewish Plays Project Welcomes Clea Alsip, Gus Birney, Grantham Coleman And More To New Plays In Development

The Jewish Plays Project has announced The Acting Company of the 10th Annual Jewish Playwriting Contest, currently streaming on jewishplaysproject.org.

The ten works feature acclaimed actors including Clea Alsip (M. Butterfly, Nantucket Sleigh Ride), Gus Birney (Dickinson, The Mist), Twinkle Burke (Gotham, Bull), Grantham Coleman (The Great Society, Much Ado About Nothing), Erica Ewell (Blaseball), Jacob Heimer (Beautiful, Soul Doctor), Philip Hoffman (Into the Woods, The Plot Against America), Kathryn Kates (Many Saints of Newark, Hunters), Alvin Keith (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Fosse/Verdon), Chloë Levine (The OA, Trinkets), Maeve Press (Everything's Gonna Be Okay, Before Your Very Eyes), Noah Robbins (Lewiston & Clarkston, Kimmy Schmidt), Bruce Sabath (Fiddler in Yiddish, Company), Liba Vaynberg (New Amsterdam, The Plot Against America), and Madeline Weinstein (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Mare of Easttown). The JPP's resident casting director Judy Bowman (Separation, Hurricane Bianca, Dorset Theatre Festival) assembled the cast.

This second annual virtual contest allows audiences worldwide to view filmed excerpts of ten finalist plays and vote on their favorite, with the winner receiving a workshop production in New York City. Voting is live through June 10th. Viewers go to jewishplaysproject.org to vote for their favorite play. The festival also culminates in a live national celebration on Thursday, June 24th at 8 pm EST.

The ten previously announced finalists are:

· ARISTAEUS by Elizabeth Savage, directed by Christina Franklin. Featuring Aliza Abramowitz, Twinkle Burke, Franck Juste, and Macey Weisberg.

· GO DOWN, MOSES by Dana Leslie Goldstein, directed by Raz Golden. Featuring Gus Birney, Brian Dykstra, Kevis Hillocks, Philip Hoffman, and Alvin Keith.

· LEO AT YESHIVA by Emma Horwitz, directed by Teddy Bergman. Featuring Madeline Weinstein.

· OKLAHOMA SAMOVAR by Alice Eve Cohen, directed by Sara Rodriguez. Featuring Joyce Cohen, Ben Diamond, Nadia Diamond, Evelyn Giovine, Jacob Heimer, and Harper Scalora.

· PART by Mariel Eve Berlin-Fischler, directed by Yehuda Jai Husband. Featuring Kathryn Kates, Dariush Kashani, Jared Kelner, Abraham Makany, and Sharona Shooshani.

· SH@MED by Joanna Castle Miller, directed by William Steinberger. Featuring Michelle Gardner, Fernando Gonzalez, Maeve Press, and Marnina Schon.

· there will come a time for vengeance by Eric Marlin, directed by Lila Rachel Becker. Featuring Clea Alsip, Ella Dershowitz, Ben Pelteson, and Mari Vial-Golden.

· WHAT WE FOUND by Molly Olis Krost, directed by Nikki Meñez. Featuring Annie Dick, Erica Ewell, Max Maliga, and Samantha Zaddack.

· WHO BY FIRE by Talisa Friedman, directed by Mia Walker. Featuring Shannon Cochran, Grantham Coleman, Talisa Friedman, Chloë Levine, Kate Levy, Noah Robbins, and Jim Shankman.

· THE WRONG QUESTION by EllaRose Chary, directed by Joshua Silverstein. Featuring Ethan Hova, Alexandra Metz, Leta Renée-Alan, Bruce Sabath, and Liba Vaynberg.

ABOUT THE JEWISH PLAYWRITING CONTEST

The Jewish Playwriting Contest seeks to discover, highlight, and nurture contemporary Jewish drama by engaging with artistic and Jewish communities throughout the United States. Since 2011, the Project has received and vetted 1,500 plays by 990 writers in 32 states and 9 countries, and actively developed 50 of those plays, of which 30 have gone on to production in cities across the globe, including New York, London, and Tel Aviv, playing for more than 30,000 audience members.