The annual four-week Summer Play Festival took place during the summer months at thePublic Theater inNew York City. It was founded by Broadway producerArielle Tepper Madover and staged new plays and musicals by emerging writers.[1][2] The first Summer Play Festival was presented in 2004, introducing a $10 ticket price that was a key feature of the event for its entire run. A year later in 2005,The Living Room for Artists, Inc. was formed as a non-profit organization to ensure that the Festival perpetuates its goals, and whose central mission is to both fuel the growth of emerging theatre artists and encourage people of all ages to create, attend and work in the theatre.[3] Unlike theNew York International Fringe Festival, there was no application fee and each production was allotted a significant budget. The SPF organization handled all the marketing and maintained no long-term rights to the plays and musicals showcased. The Festival's advertising blanketed New York during the summer, with television, newspaper, and magazine ads. Bus stops and street posters also advertised the event.
100 emerging playwrights and composers, and around 1000 directors, designers, and other theatre artists worked at the Festival during its six-year run. The Festival had a successful track record in identifying emerging talent: SPF's writers and artists have gone on to receive numerous awards and accolades, and productions onBroadway, off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. Many have also developed projects with major film and television companies.The New York Times,Variety, and numerous other newspapers lauded Tepper's vision of creating affordable theatre for audiences, and a unique creative opportunity for emerging and established artists.
Other Festival programs included concerts, panels, salons, and forums developed in conjunction withTime Out New York and the NYC Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, a university internship program, a play commissioning program, and residency programs with the Donmar Warehouse,[4] the National Theatre of Great Britain, and a number of Festivals in Europe.
