Theatre Three of Port Jefferson, Long Island, is holding its third annual one-act play festival, March 1-22, with five works selected from more than 300 submissions sent from across the U.S..

According to Newsday, this year's plays include Liver For Breakfast by Lindsay Price, Bound Worlds by Kassie Bracken, Buried Together by Joseph Coyne, Order by David Fleischer, and Or Dogs And Dolphins by Frank Tancredi.

Theatre Three, one of the largest theatres in Long Island, inaugurated its yearly one-act fest in 1998, presenting a quartet of works in its then long-dormant downstairs space. In 1999, it produced an evening of five one-acts.

The requirements for submission included that plays be unproduced and original (no adaptations), with small casts and a maximum 40-minute running time.

Artistic director Jeffrey Sanzel told Newsday not all the submissions followed those rules, while others simply couldn't be managed on Theatre Three's second stage format and budget. "I try to be fair and read them all," Sanzel said of the huge submission pile. "But usually I can tell right off if there's just no way we're going to do it." And there's no rest for the weary: "As soon as we close this show," Sanzel told Newsday, "I'll start reading for next year." For tickets ($12) and information on the third annual One-Act Festival at Theatre Three, 412 Main Street in Port Jefferson, call (516) 928-9100.

-- By David Lefkowitz
and Robert Simonson