PlayFest Santa Barbara

We are accepting scripts for the 2023 Festival until the end of October. Please mail them to PO Box 1097, Santa Barbara, CA, 93116. Best of luck. And keep writing!

Santa Barbara Public Library and PlayFest Santa Barbara Announce 2022 Reading and Workshop

PlayFest Santa Barbara, under the Artistic Direction of R. Michael Gros, in partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library presents the (covid-delayed) Ninth Annual Festival of New Plays. The staged reading of Jerry Slaff's Honoree Play, LIES, will take place at the Santa Barbara Central Library on Saturday, APRIL 30th, at 6 p.m. LIES was selected as the 2021 Honoree play following an international competition. The Readers for this event are seasoned local actors Leesa Beck, Brian Harwell, and E. Bonnie Lewis

This is the third year that PlayFest has partnered with the Santa Barbara Public Library, which offers free, all-ages programming to the Santa Barbara community. “Partnering with the Santa Barbara Public Library, and hosting the event at the Central Library, enables PlayFest to reach the greater Santa Barbara community and offers participants a unique opportunity to learn about the playwriting process,” stated Artistic Director, Michael Gros.

LIES takes place in 1950 as an inexperienced public defender tries to win the parole of a notorious German World War II radio propagandist who has a hard time telling the truth. Or does she? Are her truths all lies? Or are her lies really the truth? And what happens when you can no longer tell the two apart? Though set in 1950, LIES is as timely as today’s Washington tweets and television and radio talk shows. LIES is an allegory about lying in government, and a meditation on what is actually the truth.

A post reading talkback between the audience and the playwright will immediately follow the reading. The reading is free and open to the public, and will be held in the Fireplace Room at the Santa Barbara Central Library, located at 40 East Anapamu Street.

The 2022 Festival also incorporates a free playwriting workshop on Saturday, April 30th. The workshop will be taught by the Honoree playwright, Jerry Slaff, and is open to the general public and writers of all ages. With the lively guidance of Jerry Slaff, the workshop participants, through a series of individual and group writing experiments, will explore and deepen their playwriting skills and begin to create a short written theatrical work. No experience is necessary, however, an interest in playwriting is a plus. The workshop will also take place at the Santa Barbara Central Library in the Technology Lab from 10:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

The workshop is free, however, reservations are required as capacity in the workshop is limited in order to assure more individualized coaching. Follow the links to reserve a workshop slot.

Workshop registration: https://santabarbaraca.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=36024

Honoree Playwright and Workshop Leader biography:

Jerry Slaff, an award-winning playwright, has written numerous plays, some of which have been produced off-Broadway and in multiple regional theatres. His major plays include CASA NEUROTICA (off-Broadway), PEANUTS AND CRACKERJACKS (multiple regional theatre productions), GRAND UNION, PERSONAL HISTORIES, PETEY’S PARADE, LOST SOULS, and STANISLAVSKI’S METHODS.

LIES is the Honoree Play for PlayFest Santa Barbara 2021. It was a Semifinalist, O’Neill Theatre Conference; Winner, Grand Prize, 88th annual Writers’ Digest Writing Competition, 2019; Finalist, SigWorks reading series, Signature Theater, Arlington, Va.; staged Reading, Baltimore Playwrights Festival, December 2019; staged Reading at Scripted Brussels theater festival, Belgium, May 2020; staged Reading, HRC Showcase Theater, Hudson, N.Y., Sept. 2021; Production, Attic Salt Theater, Asheville, N.C., 2022 (scheduled).

Additional recognition for Jerry Slaff includes being a Semifinalist, 2020 Austin Film Festival playwriting competition. Semi-finalist, Garry Marshall Theatre, Burbank, Calif., 2018; Honorable Mention, 87th annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition, July 2018; Second Round, Austin Film Festival, Aug. 2018; Second Round, Phoenix Theater, Nov. 2018; Finalist, Playwrights First competition, 2019.
For more information contact:

R. Michael Gros
[email protected]

Jace Turner, Adult Education & Information Services Librarian
Santa Barbara Public Library
[email protected]
805-564-5653

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PlayFest Playwriting Workshop - Central

PlayFest is pleased to announce that LIES, by Jerry Slaff has been selected as the 2021 Festival Honoree.

SYNOPSIS
Fresh out of law school, Benny, an inexperienced public defender, is facing the case of his life - trying to win the parole of a notorious German World War II radio propagandist who has a hard time telling the truth. Or does she? Are her truths all lies, or are her lies really the truth? And what happens when you can no longer tell the two apart?

Set in 1950 but as timely as today’s Washington tweets, LIES is an allegory about lying in government, and a meditation on what truth actually is.

Bio:

Born in Brooklyn before Brooklyn was hip, Jerry Slaff’s play Lies was a semifinalist for the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference this year, a finalist for Signature Theater’s Sigworks series, and was the grand prize winner of the 2019 Writer's Digest Writing Competition, over 7,000 entries in 9 genres. His most recent play, Grand Union, was a finalist for the Austin Film Festival’s playwriting competition in 2020. His first play, Peanuts and Cracker Jack, was produced at the Cleveland Playhouse, with follow up productions at the Arkansas Repertory and Mint Theater in New York. Other plays include Casa Neurotica (New York Theater Festival), Heaven (Sandy Spring Theater Festival), Lost Souls (Baltimore Playwrights Festival), Stanislavski's Methods (Interrobang Theater Company, Baltimore), Petey’s Parade (Baltimore Playwrights Festival), and Personal Histories (Theater on the Lake, Md.). He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and is represented by the Susan F. Schulman Literary Agency in New York. All his plays are available on the New Play Exchange and his website, readermeetauthor.org.

I am pleased to share with you that the three finalists selected for the 2021 Festival are:

"I and the Emperor" Collin Speer Crowley, Connecticut, Drama

"Lies" Jerry Slaff, Maryland, Drama

"Bridal Shop Confessions" Lindsey Brown, New Zealand, Comedy

Given the limitations of the remaining time for this year, we do expect a final decision shortly.

Regards,

Michael

R Michael Gros
Artistic Director

It has been a very trying time for all of us in the arts during the pandemic. If you submitted a play for consideration for the 2021 Festival, know we are moving at a very glacial pace and that we will announce the Festival Honoree in late winter or early spring. Given the expected delays in vaccine administration and opening of public spaces for live performance, we are not likely to present the Honoree play until the end of summer or early fall. Stay safe out there and keep writing brilliant plays.