25 Aug Day 4 Results

Last night was an incredible fourth round of performances. Our first session opened with four shows: while two young immigrants practice a dance routine they also learn more about each other in Rae Binstock’s Blue Skies; just when Dave is about to forego his principals for an awful job a man he never thought he’d meet comes to the rescue in Amanda R. Martinez’s The Most Interesting Man in Dave’s Mind; a man interviews a potential candidate for the “best friend” position in Jeff Locker’s The Forgotten Place; we watch as three students navigate a class on how to be better Chinese people in Ruth Tang’s Bad Chinese.

After a quick break the second session gave us four more plays: as an interracial lesbian couple search for the perfect sperm donor they realize there’s a lot they still don’t know about each other in Barbara Lhota’s So Beautiful; two people are locked in a basement and the only way out is if one shoots the other in Jake Martin’s Someone Gets Shot; a teenage girl just wants her twin brother to acknowledge the severity of her illness in Audrey Webb’s Buried; two children navigate the complexities of love, bullies, and their dreams in Matthew Andrade’s Paper Wedding Ring.

Tasked with choosing only a few plays to advance to the Saturday finals were the National New Play Network’s Executive Director Nan Barnett, City Theatre Miami’s co-founder and Literary Director Susan Westfall, and award winning playwright and director Hansol Jung. After considerable discussion and thought, two short plays were selected to perform tomorrow.

The Forgotten Place by Jeff Locker

Bad Chinese by Ruth Tang

Congratulations! In addition, the Samuel French Editorial Team reviewed performances of the week and decided to advance Ballgirl by Gracie Gardner, from Thursday night, on to the the Finals as well. This decision is not unprecedented, as the Editorial Team has reserved the right in the past to give further consideration to titles that are not initially moved to Finals. Congratulations to Ballgirl!

If you want to see these plays again you can buy tickets for today on our tickets page. We look forward to seeing you at the theater!

Thank you Nan Barnett, Susan Westfall, and Hansol Jung for joining us last night. Making those choices couldn’t have been easy

And thank you Rae Binstock, Amanda R Martinez, Barbara Lhota, Jake Martin, Audrey Webb, and Matthew Andrade. It’s an honor to have you as a part of our Final 30, and we can’t wait to see what you write next.

From left to right, Jeff Locker, Amanda R Martinez, Barbara Lhota, Audrey Webb, Matthew Andrade, and Jake Martin