Details of Oct. Tribeca Theater Fest Revealed

Details have been released about the upcoming Tribeca Theater Festival, presented by the Drama Dept. and Tribeca Entertainment the people behind the Tribeca Film Festival. This first annual festival will run October 19 through October 31 and include a short play series, "Stage on Screen" screenings and a series of panel discussions.

The short play series, which will take place at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, will be composed of an evening of world-premiere short plays by Douglas Carter Beane, Peter Hedges, David Henry Hwang, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Kenneth Lonergan, Frank Pugliese, Paul Rudnick, Wendy Wasserstein and maybe more. Tony Award-winning director John Rando will helm the production.

The “Stage to Screen” series will focus on films that highlight the process and craft of making theater and classic plays adapted for the screen. Among the films slated to be shown are the documentary Broadway: The Golden Age, directed by Rick McKay, which will be accompanied by a sneak peak at his upcoming follow-up film, Broadway: The Next Generation, Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire and Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman. All screenings will be held at Tribeca Cinemas where the panel discussions will also occur.

“Tribeca is home to dozens of theater companies of all shapes and sizes," Jane Rosenthal who founded Tribeca Entertainment with Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff said in a statement. "By creating the Tribeca Theater Festival we hope not only to draw attention to the quality of theatrical talent in the City but to highlight the variety of performing arts available in lower Manhattan. We are particularly fortunate to be working with Drama Dept. whose theatrical endeavors over the years have proven to be world-class."