Jonathan Spector’s Best Available, directed by Marissa Wolf, is a laugh-out-loud tragedy looking at what happens behind the scenes during a theater’s selection of their new artistic director. Featuring Linda Alper, Donna Simone Johnson, Dee Maaske, Magdalena del Castillo, Rebby Yuer Foster, Aleeyah Enriquez, Rafael Untalan, and Barret O’Brien, with stage directions read by Nicole Villavicencio Gonzalez, the play is based on research and first-person interviews conducted by Spector after witnessing a regional theater’s artistic director search.

“It was a profoundly strange experience,” says Spector, “but also a wildly theatrical one." Last month, Spector’s play, Eureka Day, starring Helen Hunt premiered at The Old Vic in London and is receiving widespread acclaim.

Ashland New Plays Festival will present readings of five new works by winning playwrights Clarence Coo, Lisa Langford, Victor Lesniewski, Novid Parsi, and Jonathan Spector at its flagship annual event. Bringing the plays to life will be an amazing group of actors, many familiar stars of Oregon Shakespeare Festival and other incredible actors traveling to Ashland from New York, Los Angeles, Portland and regional hotspots.

The Festival Week runs October 18–23, with evening and matinee showings at Southern Oregon University’s Main Stage Theater, 491 S. Mountain Avenue. Talkbacks will follow each performance, giving audiences the chance to connect with the playwrights about their new work. A writer's workshop on October 22 will be another way to connect with the winning playwrights.