Audience awards $5K to Lcal Artists in PianoFight's SHORTLIVED VII

Five thousand dollars are at stake in the largest audience-judged theater competition in the country, PianoFight's ShortLived VII. Forty-eight plays from Bay Area writers, theater companies, sketch groups, and indy artists vie for the audience's affection over the nine week competition to crown the Bay Area's best and win $5,000. The regular season of ShortLived VII runs June 14 through August 4, with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm on PianoFight's Main Stage. The ShortLived VII Finals happen August 22 through August 25, with performances Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm and an additional 10pm performance on Friday, August 24. The winner of each performance, each round, and The Finals, will be announced in the PianoFight bar shortly following the evening's performance. All performances happen at PianoFight,144 Taylor Street in SF. Tickets are $20-$40 and available at www.pianofight.com

"Access is one of PianoFight's core values," says PianoFight's Artistic Director Rob Ready. "Who gets to make art? And how can we, as a company and community, lower the barriers to entry to get more people to make more art for more audiences?ShortLived does all that, which is partly why it's been around for a decade." Ready continues, "The competition begins with an open challenge - anyone in the Bay Area can submit scripts and resumes and audition. Because there are no submission fees, it doesn't cost artists anything to get their work on stage. The concept is easily digestible and fun for audiences, and we keep tickets prices cheap. And when you throw a hundred plus artists in a blender for three months everybody makes new connections, finds new collaborative partners and has a freakin' blast doing it.ShortLived VII is popular theater at its finest."

Each of the first eight weeks of competition are Regular Season Rounds, featuring six short plays per week, that range from dramatic plays, comedic sketches, devised work, musicals, movement-based pieces or solo acts (full line-up below). Each audience member ranks each piece from first to sixth, and each ranking is assigned a point value. The piece that scores highest in each round clinches a spot in The ShortLived VII Finals (August 22-25). The group that scores the highest in The Finals wins the competitions and is awarded $5,000.

Round 1 - June 14-16

Hedetet by Bridgette Dutta Portman
Icelandia by Maury Zeff
Bedtime Story by Elizabeth Flanagan
Man...Oh Quinn by Chris Chase
Abducted by Kenneth Heaton
The Perfect Wingman by Myles Romo

Round 2 - June 21-23

The Tale of Lady Murasaki by Ai Ebashi
09.16.2076_TEST_RM_D by Brennan Pickman-Thoon
The Dead of Colma by Tessa Nichols
The Modern Hell by Jeanie Ngo
For Our Benefits by Kurt Weitzmann
Explosion of Life by Barry Eitel

Round 3 - June 28-30

The Princess Diaries by Lauren Gorski
Maybe This Time by Alanna McFall
Oscar Wilde Slept Here by Terry Maloney Haley
What's Not To Love by Cleavon Smith
Last Train To Rockridge by Robin Bradford
Movies Today by John Brown III

Round 4 - July 5-7

Bringing Up Muriel by Karl Schackne
Sinkhole by Patsy Fergusson
Keane And Doyle Are Wizards by Alan Coyne
Buddy Cop by Mike Ottum and Elaine Gavin
Reach Out And Kill Someone by Sunil Patel
White Christmas by Nicole Jost

Round 5 - July 12-14

Lema Sabachtani by Emmanuel Romero
Hottest Circle In Hell by Spencer Bainbridge
Tuesday by Gabriel Leif Bellman
The Ring Of Truth by Susan Rabin
A Tale by Andrew Calabrese
Seats 32A and B by Marsha Roberts

Round 6 - July 19-21

Procreation-Ed by Black Cat Comedy
Psychic Dick by Please Leave the Bronx
Tell Him What He's Won, Johnny by Danica Jayne
No Country For Old Henchmen by The Geek Show
Set The Stage by Dan Linley
Hook Up by David Talley

Round 7 - July 26-28

Dear Gloria by Lili Weckler|Unhinge Dance Theater
Zombie Nerd by Christian Simonsen
Losing Your Mind On Purpose by Michael James Hawkins
Underneath The Above And Beyond by Laylah Muran De Assereto
Smoke And Mirrors by Stacey Winn
One Thing by Jaene Leonard

Round 8 - Aug 2-4

The Welcome Inn by Nancy Cooper Frank
The 6:50 Express by Cynthia Francis
Celery For Two by Tracy Shapiro
Funeral For A Co-Worker by Isaac Ontiveros
Predator Block Tango by Lauren Mackenzie and Stacie Sells
Size Queen by Sam Hurwitt

Thousands of audience members scoring over one hundred performers in forty-eight plays over nine weeks to crown one champion - PianoFight's ShortLived VII is the largest audience audience-judged theater competition in the country, and only you can decide the winner.

PIANOFIGHT LLC is a community-driven indy arts venue that takes pride in partnering with local artists to make great shows, mouth watering eats and delicious cocktails adding up to a uniquely San Francisco experience. Our two intimate theaters and cabaret stage host music, comedy, plays, dance, film screenings, drag, magic, variety shows and more, while our restaurant and bar serves up new American bites and classic cocktails. We provide space and infrastructure to hundreds of artists, who create and stage 1,500 performances for over 50,000 audience members each year. During the day, we are the home base for the offices and classrooms of community non-profits like Tenderloin Walking Tours and Code Tenderloin which runs a job-readiness program for TL residents. PianoFight - New Work by New Artists since 2007.

To post a comment, you must register and login.