Summer Playwright’s Festival Goes “Public”

January 7th, 2008

The Public Theatre Hosts Festival of New Works

By Jesse Schmitt

For playwrights all over the nation there is a great festival which anyone and everyone who is able should try to be a part of. The Summer Play Festival, which, this coming July, is celebrating its fifth anniversary, has recently went Public with its forthcoming information and with its locale.

Running for the first time this year at the legendary Joe Papp’s Public Theatre on Lafayette Street, the 2008 Summer Play Festival promises to be the most exciting event yet. Anyone who knows anything about the downtown theatre scene in New York City will tell you that The Public is one of those revered places which so many talented artists have passed through. Under the skilled direction of Mr. Papp and in his name since then you could say that The Public has shaped the landscape of plays, playwrights, and the theatre scene all over the world.

Bringing in challenging new works was a signature of The Public Theatre from it’s first production; the legendary musical “Hair” as well as the show which eclipsed anyone’s expectations, “A Chorus Line,” which went on to an uber-impressive fifteen year run on Broadway (and is currently back on the Rialto).

Papp is no longer alive and thus no longer running things day to day at the theatre; but his legend lives on. There have been a number of artistic and critical successes as of late including “Bring in ‘Da Noise; Bring in ‘Da Funk,” the critically praised but commercially unsuccessful “The Ride Down Mt. Morgan,” and one of the many riveting breakout works of Richard Greenberg “Take Me Out.”

So the fact that The Summer Play Festival is coming to The Public is a no-brainer pairing in many people’s eye. The Public Theatre has remained one of New York’s and the world’s preeminent cultural institutions; the pairing of The Summer Play Festival with the wide and varied selection of cutting edge writers and excellent new theatre only makes sense.

This year The Summer Play Festival will run from July 1 to July 27, 2008 in the East Village of Manhattan. While this year’s submissions have closed many people are getting very excited about the prospective lineup of new plays just due to the success of past participants in The Summer Play Festival. If you’d like more information about the upcoming festival or about other partnerships and events which are going on with The Summer Play Festival you should certainly check out their website. The site also offers you the ability to keep an eye out for their current and forthcoming news.

www.spfnyc.com