Playwrights Foundation (PF) and The New York based company, The One-Minute Play Festival are thrilled to announce the 5th Annual SF One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF), December 15th and 16th, 2014 - an evening of more than 80 brand new one minute plays by 53 Bay Area playwrights -- a highly vaunted group, all written within the past month specifically for the event.
To celebrate its 5th anniversary, the festival is being upgraded to the beautiful Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th Street, San Francisco, in the heart of the Mission District. This venue, dedicated to giving voice to the spirited Bay Area cultural scene with an emphasis on diverse voices, is located along the city's most vibrant arts and cultural corridor and provides the perfect ambiance for the celebratory nature of the #1MPF.
Each of the 50+ participating playwrights were chosen from the vibrant and highly diverse Bay Area community by Playwrights Foundation, and are paired with a cohort of the areas' talented directors and actors, who perform the works in a whirlwind 90 minutes. This year's festival features 60 seconds by such Bay Area luminaries such as Naomi Newman, John O'Keefe, Michael Gene Sullivan, Patricia Milton, Anthony Clarvoe, Peter Nachtrieb, Chris Chen, Prince Gomolvilas & Aaron Loeb, and distinguished emerging artists as Erin Bregman, Megan Cohen, Nathan Yungerberg, and Elizabeth Spreen.
The 5th Annual San Francisco One-Minute Play Festival will take place for Two Performances only, on Monday, December 15th & Tuesday, December 16th at 8pm at the Brava Theater Center, 2781- 24th Street in San Francisco. Parking available in a paid lot on 24th Street/Potrero, behind the SF General Hospital, and on the street. General Admission is $18 online, or in advance at the Brava Theater Box Office, 12p-6p M-F; and $25 at the Door. VIP Tickets for $36 include reserved, best seats and drinks of your choice. Tickets will be available for Sale on November 7, at www.brava.org. For more information, visit www.playwrightsfoundation.org.
The SF #1MPF is a partnership with the New York based company The One-Minute Play Festival, which now is a national movement that is produced in over 20 U.S. cities across the country. Through this annual event in each location, the community celebrates the singular voices of local playwrights who have their fingers firmly planted on the pulse of the region's cultural zeitgeist.
The One-Minute Play Festival, led by Dominic D'Andrea, is America's largest and longest consistently running theatre festival, with partnerships in over 20 US cities including: Boston at Boston Playwright's Theater, New York at Primary Stages, Chicago at the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater, and other LORT, NNPN, or playwright service organizations, similar to Playwrights Foundation.
Mr. D'Andrea attests to the strength of the Bay Area's theater community: "Having had the opportunity to work with the Bay Area artistic community over the past six years, I've observed a strong and present sense of community and a dedication to the craft and practice of theatre-making, that truly unique and wonderful. This is an incredible community of artists, and I'm honored to be sharing the work with them again this year, as we dig even deeper into our zeitgeist."
Reflecting on our five-year partnership with the #1MPF, PF's artistic director Amy Mueller believes that "The #1MPF is a true theatrical innovation, one that echoes a shift in the cultural tastes of a new generation - occurring throughout our city and our region. These 50+ playwrights represent an undeniable new force of creativity that is changing the landscape of our community life, and taps the rich diversity of voices and history that exists in our city. We are truly thrilled to sustain our partnership with D'Andrea's #1MPF."
5th Annual SF #1MPF Playwrights: Blake C. Aarons, Trevor Allen, Jake Arky, Tim Bauer, Elizabeth Benedict, Jon Bernson, Erin Bregman, Rachel Bublitz, Gamal Chasten, Chris Chen, Victoria Chong Der, Anthony Clarvoe, Megan Cohen, Roberta D'Alois, Bennett Fisher, Brit Frazier, Elizabeth Gjelten, Michaela Goldhaber, Prince Gomolvilas, Garret Groenveld, Daniel Heath, Robert Johnson, Barbara Jwanouskos, Lynn Kaufman, Carol Lashoff, Jeffrey Lo, Aaron Loeb, John Lowe, Jonathan Luskin, Alison Luterman, Karen Macklin, Madeline Mahrer, Braden Marks, Patricia Milton, Nick Mwaluko, Peter Nachtrieb, Naomi Newman, John O'Keefe, Marisela Orta, Evy Pine, Tracy Potter, Andrew Saito, Steven Salzman, Josh Senyak, Dara Silverman, Jonathan Spector, Elizabeth Spreen, Paul Stojsavljevic-Flores, Marissa Skudlarek, Michael Gene Sullivan, Aimee Suzara, Tom Swift, Arisa White, Nathan Yungerberg and Ignacio Zulueta.
Directors: Rotimi Agbabiaka, Hugo Carbajal, Ryan Hill, Brian Katz, Rem Myers, Karen Piemme, Ben Randle, Adam Sussman and Jayne Wenger.
Now in its fifth consecutive year in San Francisco, the #1MPF brings the Bay Area 's new play community together to create a whirlwind of theater, a celebratory and inspirational evening during the holidays for the community, and one that lifts up the Bay Area's unique cultural thumbprint. With over 100 local artists participating, audiences will get a full meal of delicious little bites.
About Playwrights Foundation - Founded in 1976 by Robert Woodruff, the Playwrights Foundation is now recognized as one of the top new play developmental centers in the country and the only one of its size and scope on the West Coast. Playwrights Foundation supports and champions contemporary playwrights in the creation of new works to sustain theater as a vital, dynamic art form. PF actively fosters the creative process of playmaking and the dissemination of new works to national theater producers, while sustaining a commitment to the playwright, whom we regard as the creative wellspring of the theater. Since its inception in 1976, PF has served more than 475 writers at all levels of their careers, providing indispensable resources and support for the development of their work, and connecting them to theaters interested in producing new plays. Our program alumni, first discovered early in their careers, include some of the most prominent names in contemporary theater, including include Sam Shepard, Philip Kan Gotanda, Amy Freed, Anne Galjour, Octavio Solis, John O'Keefe, Mac Wellman, Brighde Mullins, Bill Irwin, Migdalia Cruz, Anna Deavere Smith, Paul Vogel, Maria Irene Fornes, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuka, Brian Thorstenson, Claire Chaffee, Prince Gomolvilas, Liz Duffy Adams, Christine Evans, Marcus Gardley, Sheila Callaghan and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz among many others Our mandate is to offer a full range of programs that provide multiple points of entry for a diverse range of playwrights-at a low cost or free of charge-so they can readily access our services, take advantage of our expertise, recourses and connections across the nation, while learning from their artistic peers.
About The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) - #1MPF is America's largest and longest continually running theatre festival, founded by Producing Artistic Director, Dominic D'Andrea. #1MPF is barometer project, which investigates the zeitgeist of different communities through dialogue and consensus building sessions and a performance of many moments. #1MPF works in partnership with theatres sharing playwright or community-specific missions across the country, creating locally sourced playwright-focused community events, with the goal of promoting the spirit of radical inclusion by representing local cultures of playwrights of different age, gender, race, 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 the work. 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, teaching artists working in prisons, playwright residencies and memberships, and community arts workshops.
Annual partnerships have been created with theaters in over 20 cities including: New York, Los Angeles, SanFrancisco, Chicago, Trenton, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Anchorage, and more, with partnering institutions like Primary Stages, Victory Gardens Theatre, Cornerstone Theatre Company, The Playwrights Foundation, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Actor's Express, InterAct Theatre, Mixed Blood, Passage Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Kitchen Dog, Salvage Vanguard, ScriptWorks, ACT Seattle, Perseverance Theatre, and others.
Notable #1MPF contributors have included: David Henry Hwang, Neil LaBute, Tina Howe, Donald Margulies, Nilaja Sun, Lydia Diamond, Phillip Kan Gotanda, Kristoffer Diaz, Rajiv Joseph, Sam Hunter, Karen Hartman, José Rivera, Craig Lucas, Mike Daisey, Greg Kotis, Michael John Garcés, & over 700 celebrated, emerging, and midcareer playwrights.
For more information visit: www.oneminuteplayfestival.com.
To learn more about the SF One-Minute Play Festival and the Playwrights Foundation, visit the Playwrights Foundation website at www.playwrightsfoundation.org.
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