Just shy of its 10th year, the Midtown International Theatre Festival may be an established fixture in New York’s theatrical calendar, but it is still growing in ambition. Showcasing 50 plays and musicals at seven downtown venues, the festival, which begins today, now offers a Commercial Division, designed to maximize three works’ chances of enjoying a future beyond the festival. “I have often seen wonderful works [here] and elsewhere off-off-Broadway, and it frustrated me that so many of them never went anywhere else,” the festival’s executive producer, John Chatterton, said. “The idea behind the Commercial Division is to take shows that want to go to that next level and give them a place to do so.”

The festival is aiming for a repeat of 2003, when “Thrill Me,” a musical based on the story of the killers Leopold and Loeb, originated at the festival and went on to have an extended off-Broadway run and global success. The three shows slated for the inaugural Commercial Division are Marc Castle’s “Love, Incorporated,” in which a woman seeks the meaning of love via a business plan, Lisa Ramirez’s “Exit Cuckoo,” a one-woman show about how best to raise a child in the midst of Manhattan’s urban jungle, and “OPA!” which takes place on a Greek island (evidently “Mamma Mia!” has plenty to answer for).

Other shows in this year’s festival include “Cleopatra — A Life Unparalleled,” a musical about the Egyptian queen set to the strains of blues-rock and reggae, and Eastcheap Rep company’s “Natalie,” a dramatic comedy detailing the romantic exploits of a 20-something female, inspired by a New York Times column by David Brooks. Who knew Mr. Brooks was the new Candace Bushnell?

Feeling particularly ambitious? Here are some other festival highlights:

Where to go for Middle Eastern studies

 The festival can’t be accused of shying away from big themes. Take the conflict in the Middle East. Meri Wallace’s drama “Yom Kippur” depicts the tension between two Israeli-based American couples at the time of Egypt and Syria’s 1973 attack. The question of whether an Israeli and a Palestinian can ever get on without the conflict clouding their friendship is explored in Phillip Weiss’s “Moishe and Mohammed.” In a lighter vein, “The Higher Education of Khalid Amir” by Monica Bauer features a cross-dressing Middle Eastern studies professor who gets embroiled with President Bush and the FBI.

Where to go for long-lost revivals

Some off-Broadway aficionados maintain that the festival’s revival of George Axelrod’s 1957 celebrity satire “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” was among the most satisfying experiences of last summer. This year, Harry Kurnitz’s 1961 murder comedy “A Shot in the Dark” gets dusted off, courtesy of the Wildcat Theatricals company. Subsequently mined for a movie vehicle for Peter Sellers’s Inspector Clouseau, the play was a smash on Broadway with a cast that featured Walter Matthau and William Shatner. Other revivals include three extended scenes from Alan Ayckbourn’s two-actor, eight-play cycle of the 1980s, “Intimate Exchanges,” which had a successful staging at 59E59 Theaters last year, and “Flies in the Snuffbox,” a trio of Anton Chekhov one-act dramas. Those with a fondness for Dorothy Parker’s acid-drenched aphorisms should head to “Those Whistling Lads,” adapted from 10 of her poems and short stories.

Where to go for political shenanigans

 A meeting between Senator Clinton and Monica Lewinsky immediately prior to President Clinton’s White House intern scandal is an intriguing proposition, but can it make good drama? Find out in Yvette Heyliger’s “Hillary and Monica: The Winter of Her Discontent.” “Fuel,” penned by Joseph Beck, is a satire on President Bush and his relationship with OPEC. A married senator struggles with his sexuality in “Gentleman’s Wish.” James Larocca’s “Penang,” set during the Vietnam War, examines the suicide attempt of a Navy lieutenant. For those who like their politics more local, John Heimbuch’s “10-Speed Revolution” imagines a “world controlled by City Hall” in which it is left to three “hammer-wielding hipsters” to save the day.

Where to find the stage onstage

On the evidence of the festival schedule, many “up and coming” playwrights are hoping to make their name focusing on a subject very close to home, namely the theater. “Writer’s Block,” by Shaun Gunning, features a playwright struggling to follow up on his overnight success. Four theater directors discuss whether their work is important to the outside world in “The Director’s Reality,” while “Zen and the Art of Doing Nothing,” written and directed by Mike Wallach, promises to “dive into the gut-wrenching, heart-dropping feeling of humiliation that defines the experience of New York city off-off Broadway actors.” A special mention should also go to the theater critic Charles Gross, who crosses the fence with the real estate comedy “How I Found An Affordable Apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan Without Really Trying.”

The most attention-seeking production

Philip Mutz’s “Kidnapping Laura Linney” is a comedy about three actors abducting the indie-film queen after she pulls the plug on their sitcom, which satirizes her. This show is either a sub-Gawker exercise in celebrity fixation, to be avoided at all costs, or the next “Being John Malkovich.” The play’s Web site, somewhat desperate and uncharitable to its subject (“Will enough audience members know who Laura Linney is? Can we actually put this play on before Laura Linney sues us?”), points to the former outcome.