The 3rd Summer Play Festival announces directors

The Summer Play Festival have announced the full schedule for the 15 shows to play at Theatre Row from the 5 - 30 Jul as part of the third annual event.

The 15 plays playing at the Third Annual Summer Play Festival:

• The Butcherhouse Chronicles
  Playwrite: Michael Hidalgo
  Director: Thomas Caruso
  Cast: Matthew Doyle, Billy Wheelan, Todd Cerveris, Carole Monferdini, Erik Singer, Vin Knight, William Youmans, Kate Chadwick and Anna Chlumsky Synopsis: A dark play about four high school students looking for their missing history teacher.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre
  Dates: 11 - 16 Jul 2006
• Father Joy
  Playwrite: Sheri Wilner
  Director: Pam MacKinnon
  Cast: Lizbeth MacKay, Reno Roop, Elisabeth Waterston and Randall Newsome
  Synopsis: A fantastical comedy about a girl whose father is actually disappearing before her very eyes.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Kirk Theatre
  Dates: 11 - 16 Jul 2006
• The Fearless
  Playwrite: Etan Frankel
  Director: Scott Schwartz
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: Follows the decade-long journey of three friends who formed a rock band in college.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Kirk Theatre
  Dates: 25 - 30 Jul 2006
• Gardening Leave
  Playwrite: Joanna Pinto
  Director: Michael Goldfried
  Cast: Maha Chehlaoui and Michael Tomlinson
  Synopsis: A lonely older British man whose life is turned around when a young Iranian woman comes to help with his rooftop garden.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Lion Theatre
  Dates: 11 - 16 Jul 2006
• Hardball
  Playwrite: Victoria Stewart
  Director: Lou Jacob
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: A comedy about a rising female Republican political pundit. What happens when news becomes entertainment and politics become a performance?
  Venue: Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre
  Dates: 25 - 30 Jul 2006
• Hitting The Wall
  Playwrite: Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich
  Director: Drew Barr
  Cast: Leslie Lyles, Tom Mason, Kelly Coffield Park, John Rothman, Patricia Buckley and Todd Weeks
  Synopsis: A dark comedy about a pair of neighbors putting their lives together after the death of one of their children.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre
  Dates: 11 - 16 Jul 2006
• Marge
  Playwrite: Peter Morris
  Director: Alex Timbers
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: A comedy about a man who hires a prostitute to help murder his wife.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Lion Theatre
  Dates: 18 - 23 Jul 2006
• Millicent Scowlworthy
  Playwrite: Rob Handel
  Director: Ken Rus Schmoll
  Cast: Maria Dizzia, Hannah Cabell, Megan Hart, Laurabeth Greenwald, Emily Sophia Knapp, Dan McCabe, Debargo Sanyal, Joe Curnutte, Gregory Keller, Jonathan Monk, John Summerour and Alexis Camins
  Synopsis: A story that finds teenagers reenacting a murder that took place in their community.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre
  Dates: 5 - 9 Jul 2006
• Sonia Flew
  Playwrite: Melinda Lopez
  Director: Justin Waldman
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: A Cuban exile haunted by the memories of her past when her son announces his intention to join the Marines.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre
  Dates: 25 - 30 Jul 2006
• Spain
  Playwrite: Jim Knable
  Director: Jeremy Dobrish
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: A comedy about a woman, recently left by her husband, who encounters a sixteenth-century conquistador in her twenty-first century living room.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Kirk Theatre
  Dates: 18 - 23 Jul 2006
• Splitting Infinity
  Playwrite: Jamie Pachino
  Director: Matt Shakman
  Cast: Michael Rupert, Ann Dowd, Greg Wooddell, Samantha Soule, Paul Kropfl and Priscilla Shanks
  Synopsis: About two old friends, a Rabbi and an astrophysicist who wants to prove that God does not exist.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre
  Dates: 5 - 9 Jul 2006
• The Squirrel
  Playwrite: Alex Moggridge
  Director: Patrick McNulty
  Cast: Rachel Black, Jed Orlemann, Jeff Galfer and Rebecca Wisocky
  Synopsis: A black comedy that follows a woman and her oversensitive husband, overbearing sister, and a man she just hit with her car.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Kirk Theatre
  Dates: 5 - 9 Jul 2006
• Swansong
  Playwrite: Patrick Page
  Director: David Muse
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: A comedic fictitious story about real life playwright Ben Jonson putting together the first Folio of William Shakespeare�s work after the Bard�s death.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Lion Theatre
  Dates: 25 - 30 Jul 2006
• Training Wisteria
  Playwrite: Molly Smith Metzler
  Director: Evan Cabnet
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: Combines a dysfunctional family with a dirty yard and home improvement on the evening of the son�s graduation party.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre
  Dates: 18 - 23 Jul 2006
• A Wive's Tale
  Playwrite: Christina Ham
  Director:Rosemary Andress
  Cast:tba
  Synopsis: A futuristic drama about a group of barren women in the future conspiring to create the perfect society.
  Venue: Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre
  Dates: 18 - 23 Jul 2006

The final plays were selected by the following theater professionals. They were: Walter Bilderback, David Binder, Jo Bonney, Polly K. Carl, Jeremy Dobrish, David Dower, Gordon Edelstein, Todd London, Eduardo Machado, Lisa McNulty, Richard Nelson, Matthew Byam Shaw, Leigh Silverman, John Weidman.

"Playwrights need productions to become better playwrights.� said Richard Nelson, final selector, playwright, and Yale Department Chair, �The Summer Play Festival is built upon this vision; it has become for young playwrights a significant and necessary part of our theatrical landscape. This is a vital and really important event." Of this year�s selections, West End Producer and selection committee member Matthew Byam Shaw said, �To anyone looking for an original and genuinely entertaining new play this summer, I think the SPF will have it."

Under founder Arielle Tepper, The non-profit organization The Living Room for Artists Inc./Summer Play Festival provides emerging writers, directors, designers and producers an opportunity to work on their material and their craft in a protected environment, guided by established professionals at no cost to them.