Nominations for the festival can be made until March 5 by theatre organizations, studios and schools. For more information visit www.samuelfrench.com/store/off_off_broadway.php?osCsid=. Initial selections of Festival participants are made based on a rating system developed by Samuel French and Love Creek Productions. Then, for the first 12 nights of the festival, a full program of the plays is performed for a panel of judges, who then select finalists to be performed on the last day. Members of Samuel French's editorial department attend the final performance to offer publication contracts to authors of selected plays.
Over 360 companies and schools from the U.S. and abroad have participated in the festival in its 31 years. Samuel French has published 163 of the submitted plays.
The Chernuchin, The American Theatre of Actors is at 314 West 54th Street.