Ou Playwriting Alum Ira Gammerman’s short play “Billy Bitchass” will be apart of the 40th Annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Fest! Billy Bitchass is about” A boy with no name runs away with a puppy who can’t understand sadness.” The festival consists of thirty short plays ranging from 10 to 30 minutes and will take place in NYC this August! The festival received over a fifteen hundred submissions this year and is highly selective in picking material they believe stands out and is unique in form and content. Congrats Ira! Your funny, unique and crazy writing is addictive! If you are in NYC this August, go check it out!
Here is a list of all the finalists selected for the festival!
Here is a quote from his recent interview about the play(Spoiler Alert: seems like this play started from a Madness, the short play fest MFA playwrights do every week)
OOB: How did you come to write your OOB play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation? How has it developed?
IG: I had a short play I wrote in grad school called Bitchass about a kid talking to a guy in a dog costume about being bullied. I always knew it was a special play, but it wasn’t quite finished.
To read the whole interview with Ira about his play click here !!
More about the festival:
The Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival offers a prize of publication and licensing for six short plays in the notable OFF OFF BROADWAY FESTIVAL PLAYS series. In addition, the 30 semi-finalists each receive a full production in one of New York City’s leading Off Broadway theatres.
Though many of the works that play in the Festival have been developed under the wing of theatres, universities, and writer’s groups, many of the plays that are produced as part of the Festival are world premieres. The application period for the Festival begins in January and lasts until late February. Playwrights may submit up to three unpublished plays or musicals that may be performed in 30 minutes or less. On their application, playwrights must cite the organization that will produce their play (at this early stage it is often the playwright themselves) and a liaison for Samuel French to contact with Festival information. Submissions are whittled down by the Festival’s editorial staff, and the Final Thirty are chosen to present their play during Festival week.
Festival week consists of 4 performance sessions in which 7 to 8 scripts are presented in front of a judging panel comprised of professionals representing various parts of the theatre industry. At the end of each session, the judges deliberate and 1 to 3 plays are selected to move on to the Festival Finals.
Finals take places on the Saturday of the Festival Week. During the Finals, the Festival staff will watch the final ten to twelve plays and select six authors to be a published in a the OFF OFF BROADWAY FESTIVAL PLAYS series, which is published and licensed by Samuel French, Inc. Sunday acts as a showcase of all the winners, and Samuel French invites many industry professional to attend.
About our Alumni Playwrights
The Festival has served as a doorway to future success for many aspiring playwrights, and has helped launched the work of notables as Theresa Rebeck, Shirley Lauro, Sheila Callaghan, Bekah Brunstetter, Steve Yockey, Saviana Stanescu, David Johnston, and Daniel Pearle. In many cases, Festival participation has sparked agent contracts for Festival finalists. Many past Festival playwrights have gone on to win major playwriting awards and honors, as well as to have major theatrical productions of their works staged.
More about Ira
Ira Gamerman is a New York Innovative Theater award-nominee with an MFA in playwriting from Ohio University. His theatrical work has been produced by The Kennedy Center, Collaboraction, and Short & Sweet Sydney. In 2006, City Paper voted Ira “Best Playwright of Baltimore.” His podcast writing won a 2013 Mark Time Award for Radiotopia’s THE TRUTH and his episodes have been downloaded over 40,000 times. Ira co-created, co-produces, and co-hosts DANGEROUSLY UNQUALIFIED: A PODCAST ABOUT LOVE (the original serialized Baltimore-centric podcast from Ira G and America’s Favorite Amateur Dating Coach: Ryan Dowler). He composes music as Ira Lawrences Haunted Mandolin. His debut album was recorded at Galaxy Smith Studios in Brooklyn: iralawrence.bandcamp.com. Ira Just returned from the Philippines where he developed “EVERYTHING IS EVERYWHERE LIE TO YOUR FACE” at the Karnabal Festival with his AustraliAmerican theater collective Everything Is Everywhere . Ira reviews music for High Times Magazine.
Visit him online at everythingiseverywhere.com .
