Kitchen Theatre Co to Host First-Ever Ithaca One-Minute Play Festival

America's largest and longest running grassroots theatre project, THE ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) is beginning a dynamic partnership with Kitchen Theatre Company and creating The First Ithaca One-Minute Play Festival. The evening of 50+ brand new one-minute plays, written by many of Ithaca's established and emerging playwrights and highlighting the zeitgeist of the local community, will play for three performances only: Saturday, July 21st at 8PM, & Sunday, July 22nd at 3PM & 7PM at Kitchen Theatre Company, 417 W. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street. Tickets, priced at $20, are currently available at kitchentheatre.org. Proceeds from the event will support the development of new work at the Kitchen.

The First Ithaca One-Minute Play Festival will feature brand new one-minute plays by nearly 30 Ithaca writers, including: Michael Barakiva, Michelle Berry, Arthur Bicknell, Ted Blanchard, Sam Buggeln, Molly Burdick, Wendy Dann, Thom Dunn, Yvonne Fisher, Lesley Greene, David Guaspari, Laurel Guy, Ross Haarstad, Anne Hamilton, George Holets, Kavi Kardos, J. Robert Lennon, Mary Lorson, Kenneth McLaurin, Judith Pratt, Bob Proehl, Vanessa Reyes, George Sapio, Anthony Sidle, Saviana Stanescu, Aoise Stratford, Irving Torres, Chris Woodworth, and more.

The plays are directed by: Jake Beckhard, Lesley Greene, Kyle Haden, Evie Hammer-Lester, Rachel Hockett, Amina Omari, and Aaron Roberts.

Over three dozen actors will take on the challenge of bringing these new plays to life.

"We're so thrilled to begin this brand new partnership with the Kitchen Theatre Company and the Ithaca community," says Dominic D'Andrea, Producing Artistic Director of 1MPF. "We've always wanted to make work in upstate NY, and we've been blown away by the community's fierce commitment to the project and to each other. It makes the kind of community-engaged work that we do really special."

"I've loved being a part of the OMPF in the past and I'm so excited to be bringing it to Ithaca," says M. Bevin O'Gara, Producing Artistic Director of the Kitchen Theatre. "Getting to see what so many local writers dream up will be both entertaining and illuminating. Using the arts to bring together community and provide a deeper understanding of one another is a passion of mine, and having so many local artists participating in one project feels like such a special way to mark the one year anniversary of my move to Ithaca."

EVENT DETAILS

Title: THE FIRST ITHACA ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL

Dates: Saturday, July 21st at 8PM th & Sunday, July 22nd at 3PM & 8PM

Tickets: $20. Tickets are currently available at kitchentheatre.org.

About THE ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL

THE ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) is America's largest and longest running grassroots theatre company, founded by Producing Artistic Director, Dominic D'Andrea. #1MPF is a social barometer project that investigates the zeitgeist of different communities through dialogue, consensus building and a performance of 50-100 short moments generated by each community. #1MPF works in partnership with theatres and/or social organizations sharing playwright, educational or community-specific missions across the country. The aim is to create locally sourced, playwright-focused community events in a spirit of radical inclusion. #1MPF represents playwrights of different ages, genders, races, cultures, and points of career. The work attempts to reflect the theatrical landscape of local artistic communities by creating a dialogue between the collective conscious and the individual voice.

In each city, #1MPF works with partnering organizations to identify programs or initiatives in each community to support with the proceeds from ticket sales. The goal is to find ways give directly back to the artists in each community. Supported programs have ranged from educational programming, youth poetry projects, theatre program in prisons, playwright residencies and memberships, playwrights salaried commissions, community access projects, arts workshops and other social and artistic initiatives.

Annual partnerships have been created with theaters in over 20 cities including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Trenton, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Indianapolis, Anchorage, Honolulu, St. Louis and more, with partnering institutions including Primary Stages, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New Georges at New York City Center, Z-Space, A.C.T., Trinity Rep, Victory Gardens Theater, Cornerstone Theatre Company, The Playwrights Foundation, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Actor's Express, InterAct Theatre, Mixed Blood, Walking Shadow Theatre, Passage Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Salvage Vanguard & ScriptWorks, ACT Seattle, Perseverance Theatre, Round House Theatre, Honolulu Theatre For Youth and others.

Notable #1MPF contributors have included: David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, Neil LaBute, Tina Howe, Donald Margulies, Nilaja Sun, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Robert Schenkkan, Lydia Diamond, Phillip Kan Gotanda, Kristoffer Diaz, Rajiv Joseph, Samuel D. Hunter, Karen Hartman, Robert Askins, Colman Domingo, José Rivera, Craig Lucas, Mike Daisey, Greg Kotis, Michael John Garcés and over to 1400 celebrated, emerging, and midcareer playwrights. For more information visit: www.oneminuteplayfestival.com

ABOUT THE KITCHEN THEATRE COMPANY

Bold, intimate, engaging... Kitchen Theatre Company (KTC), now in its 28th season, is downtown Ithaca's critically acclaimed and nationally recognized year-round professional theater company, specializing in regional and world premiere plays. KTC's intimate 99-seat theater is in a beautifully renovated, LEED-certified building in the West End neighborhood of downtown Ithaca, New York. KTC is the first not-for-profit recipient of the David R. Strong Memorial "Small Business of the Year" Award from the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and receives public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the Tompkins County Tourism Program. The Kitchen Theatre Company also receives general operating support from the Shubert Foundation.

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