Submissions Now Accepted for Red Bull's Eighth Annual Short New Play Fest

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Founding Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced that their eighth annual festival of 10-minute plays of heightened language and classic themes will feature two brand new commissions from Tina Howe and Doug Wright, alongside 6 brand new plays chosen from hundreds of submissions from playwrights across the country. Selected plays will receive a staged reading performance in the festival on Monday July 16th (7:30 PM), directed by Pamela Berlin and Evan Yionoulis, performed by a company of some of New York's finest actors.

The 2018 Short New Play Festival will be at Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, between Bleecker and Hudson Streets). The 2018 Short New Play Festival is made possible by the generous support of The Noël Coward Foundation.

Submissions are now being accepted for the remaining slots. Six brand-new short plays will be selected from an open submission process and presented in staged readings performed by great actors alongside new short plays by two commissioned writers, Tina Howe and Doug Wright. This year's theme is "The Language of Love," with all its madness and joy.

Tina Howe's best known plays include Birth and After Birth, Museum, The Art of Dining, Painting Churches, Coastal Disturbances and Pride's Crossing -- all published by TCG. In 2010, she launched the Rita and Burton Goldberg MFA in Playwriting at Hunter College, after teaching there for twenty years. She has proudly served on the Council of the Dramatists Guild for just as long, garnering the usual awards and humiliations along the way.

Doug Wright earned the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for his play I Am My Own Wife. Other stage works include Grey Gardens (Tony Nomination), The Little Mermaid, Hands on a Hardbody, and War Paint. Film: Quills, based on his Obie-winning play, nominated for three Academy Awards. Television: "Tony Bennett: An American Classic," directed by Rob Marshall. Honors: Benjamin Dank Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters; Tolerance Prize, Kulturforum Europa; Paul Selvin Award, Writers Guild of America. Professional affiliations: President of the Dramatists Guild; member, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, board of the New York Theatre Workshop. Wright is married to singer/songwriter David Clement.

SHORT NEW PLAY FESTIVAL - DETAILS

Each year, the company selects new works of heightened language and classical themes from today's top established and emerging playwrights. The latest installment of our renowned annual new play festival brings you works by some of the most exciting up-and-coming writers from across the country, penning classically inspired ten-minute plays alongside two commissioned master playwrights. This year's theme? "The Language of Love," with all its madness and joy.

Using the theme "The Language of Love," playwrights are asked to write a short play of no more than 10 minutes in length that makes use of any, or all, of the following: heightened language or verse; a classical theme or style; a classical story. Deadline is 12 Noon on April 23rd. Selected writers will receive a commissioning fee of $300 plus a travel reimbursement of up to $400 to attend the festival rehearsal and performance. Red Bull Theater requests the presence of the selected writers at the Festival. the one from 'Red Bull' has these

SHORT NEW PLAY FESTIVAL - HISTORY

Red Bull Theater's Annual Short New Play Festival, now entering its 8th season, has generated over 1,000 new short plays of classic themes and heightened language, presenting nearly 50 of them in a one-night only Festival performance with some of New York's finest actors and directors. In its first six years, the commissioned playwrights have been: Lee Blessing, Constance Congdon, Lisa D'Amour, Elizabeth Egloff, Amy Freed, David Grimm, John Guare, David Ives, Ellen McLaughlin, Peter Oswald, Regina Taylor and Anne Washburn. Winners of the open submission competition have included: Kate Abbruzzese, Liz Duffy Adams, Mike Anderson, Heidi Armbruster, Matt Barbot, Dave Carley, Dipika Guha, Arthur Holden, Will Kenton, Anchuli Felicia King, Sam Lahne, Tabia Lau, Patricia Ione Lloyd, Wendy MacLeod, Stephen Massicotte, Dakin Matthews, Elizabeth Miller, Winter Miller, Mark O'Donnell, Eric Pfeffinger, Jason Gray Platt (thrice!), Bridgette Dutta Portman (twice!), Lynn Rosen (twice!), Tom Rowan, Aubrey Saverino, Natalia Savvides, Jen Silverman, Tommy Smith, James Still, Emily Taplin Boyd, Matthew Wells, and Tim West.

SHORT NEW PLAY FESTIVAL - IN PRINT!

Together with Steele Spring Stage Rights, Red Bull Theater published three collections featuring the best of the annual Short New Play Festival. This ongoing series features 10-minute plays of heightened language and classical themes by today's hottest writers, including commissions by established playwrights such as John Guare, David Ives, Regina Taylor, and Anne Washburn, and winning entries by writers such as Mike Anderson, Sam Lahne, Lynn Rosen, and Jen Silverman--all chosen from a competition that receives nearly 300 submissions each year. In the hands of great playwrights, the 10-minute play is a highly entertaining dramatic form. This collection offers the most delectable of these delightfully compact works - some downright silly, and others powerfully moving. The collections are available at Amazon.

Red Bull Theater, hailed as "the city's gutsiest classical theater" by Time Out New York,is the not-profit Off-Broadway theater company specializing in plays of heightened language. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, Red Bull Theater embraces the imagination of theatergoers through intimate, imaginative productions of great classic stories from all eras and cultures.

Acclaimed as "a dynamic producer of classic plays" by The New York Times, Red Bull Theater has previously staged acclaimed productions of Pericles, The Revenger's Tragedy, Edward the Second, Women Beware Women, The Duchess of Malfi, The Witch of Edmonton, The Maids, The Dance of Death, Loot, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Volpone, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, The Changeling, The School For Scandal, and Coriolanus. Last season's runaway hit, Gogol's The Government Inspector, enjoyed an extended run at the Duke on 42nd Street before transferring to a sold out limited engagement at New World Stages, being named among "The Best of 2017" by New York Magazine, Time Out NY, AM NY, CitiTour.com, New York Theater, Broadway Radio, and Stage Buddy, as well as garnering two Joe A. Callaway Awards. The company's work has been hailed as "the most exciting classical theater in New York" (Time Out New York), "Dynamite!" (The New York Times), "Triumphant!" (Associated Press), and "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years" (Variety).

Red Bull Theater's work has been recognized with multiple Drama Desk, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Callaway and OBIE Award nominations and awards, including the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival in the 2015-'16 season (School for Scandal). The company has staged nearly 150 Revelation Readings, named by the Village Voice "Best Play Reading Series," also developing new plays of heightened language and classical adaptations through workshops and offering educational programs for students of all ages. Post-play Bull Session discussions with scholars following select Sunday matinees and Readings are free and open to the public.

Red Bull Theater offers Master Classes throughout the year. Taught by top working professionals including Kathleen Chalfant, John Douglas Thompson, Heidi Griffiths, and Patrick Page, Red Bull Theater's intensives and workshops cover a variety of disciplines, including auditioning, text, voice, movement, clowning, stage combat, and acting Shakespeare. Classes are open to adults at all levels of training or experience. They range from one to four days with limited class sizes to allow one-on-one attention. You can enroll in any combination of classes, or take the whole series for a year-long training experience.

For more information about the Short New Play Festival or any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.