Sunday 13 November 2011

Off Broadway: Stella Adler Studio Revival "Lebensraum"

Gi60 U.S. acting company member Mickey Ryan is currently appearing Off-Broadway in Lebensraum by Israel Horovitz at The Abingdon Theater. Produced by the Stella Adler Studio and directed by Don K. Williams, you have until November 20th to see this production that Backstage called "a knockout", and praised the actors "breathtaking skill and conviction". Go to SmartTix or the Stella Adler website for ticket information.

Mickey Ryan is a founding member of the Gi60 U.S. Acting company, and has appeared in more than seventy Gi60 plays since the festival's inception in 2005.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Gi60 Meets Barefoot Theatre Company

Samantha Fontana, Andrew MacLarty, and Mike Pierre Louis, members of Gi60 U.S., are performing in Barefoot Theatre Company's hit production of Joe Pintauro's Raft of the Medusa, now through October 22 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. Directed by Barefoot Theatre's artistic director Francisco Solorzano, this powerful ensemble opened on Sunday to rave reviews! Please visit their website (www.barefoottheatrecompany.org) for links to reviews, and more information about this dynamic company that continues to bring their passion and artistry to every production, reading, and workshop they do. Get your tickets to Raft of the Medusa now. It'll only take a minute...

Saturday 1 October 2011

G(hosts)i60 IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

It is with great regret that I have to announce that the planned G(hosts)i60 in November has been postponed and will be rescheduled for Spring 2012. All entries will now also be automatically considered for the main 2012 Gi60. My apologies to the many writers who submitted some fantastic work for the event.

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Gi60 2011: Live U.S. Edition Videos on YouTube!

We're delighted to announce that the edited videos of plays performed for Gi60: The International One Minute Play Festival, 2011 Live U.S. Edition are being posted on the Gi60 Channel on YouTube starting this week (click the link on this page). After spending a long summer in the editing booth, our wonderful film editor and YouTube master Christopher Thomasson will be uploading them in small batches. Keep watching, and if you don't find a particular play that you're looking for, check back in a few days. It will take some time to post all one hundred plays from US and UK, so enjoy them all, and please let us know your responses on the blog.

Please share these plays with your friends around the world; remember that one of Steve Ansell's original goals for Gi60 was to get as much theater to as many people as possible, no matter how remote the location. Watch these little plays on your phone, email them to friends, post them on your Facebook page. It will only take a minute...

Our great thanks to all contributing playwrights, the acting companies, directors, the film directors and camera operators, stage managers, and designers for their amazing work, and to our fantastic audiences for their ongoing support. Enjoy!

Thursday 1 September 2011

The Length of a Minute, The Length of a Moment

My first memory is of a car crash.

Staring out our living room window, I must’ve been four years old, the inevitable impact unfolded. Two cars crumpled like paper, spilling their guts of gears and engine parts onto the street.

What I can never forget is the way time seemed to stretch and slow itself down to individual, isolated beats.

If a moment can linger and expand, a minute is much longer than we think.


(Scene from Hour of The Wolf by Ingmar Bergman)
The most common form of miniature drama is the TV commercial. Most leave a lot to be desired from an artistic standpoint.


Some, in sixty seconds or less, can offer an experience that resonates across generations.


Digital culture has sliced and diced our lives into even smaller fragments. Twitter has created a space where splinters of random thoughts, jokes, ideas, commerce fly at us from all over the world, often without context or the frames necessary to allow for real communication or understanding. It's like entering a town made entirely of billboards.

There are even Twitter plays:







(by Laura Barbiea, from the Twitter feed of another short-form theatre innovator, The NY Neo-Futurists)

A minute, then, is practically an eternity.

Visit the Gi60 YouTube Channel and you’ll find discreet minutes, each filled with a different confection: comedy, drama, horror, absurdity, observation, melodrama, minimalism, maximalism, lightly drawn sketches, strange scribbles, bold-brushed epics, love stories, ghost stories, innuendo. Some are flavors you've never thought of and would be hard-pressed to classify.

Taken as a whole, the collection can be seen as a meditation on Theatre itself.

My earliest memory had a part to play in writing what would become Moment Before Impact, which takes place in the split-second before a middle-aged husband and wife lose their lives in a car accident.

A single second expands, and the two partake in a cold, clinical accounting of their lives.

According to Pascal’s Wager, by believing in God, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If there’s no God, worshiping something that doesn’t exist has no cost. If there is a God and we turn away from him, we risk the incalculable loss of everlasting life.

However, if there's no heaven or hell, and all we have is this one life, isn’t what little time we have here priceless?



Ruben Carbajal is a freelance copywriter and author of the plays The Gifted Program, Portland, Car & Carriage Collide and others. He's proud to have participated in five Gi60 Festivals. You can learn more about him by visiting www.rubencarbajal.net or following his sardonic tweets @rubencarbajal.

Friday 19 August 2011

G(hosts)i60 2011 Now Accepting Submissions


G(hosts)i60 Nov 12th
Viaduct ~Theatre, Halifax

After the success of our first G(hosts)i60 the Halifax Ghost Festival has been kind enough to ask us to return again this year with another batch of tiny terrors. We are looking for 50 One Minute plays that have a ghostly theme. They can be fear filled or frivolous, cerebral or physical. Last year we had pieces that ranged from a psychopaths return from the dead to the day to day plight of the ghosts in the Pacman.

Now accepting submissions now. (Deadline MIDNIGHT 2 Oct).

All submission should be emailed to screammedia@yahoo.com. Full details of the Gi60 submission process can be found at our website www.Gi60.com, our blog www.Gi60.blogspot.com or our facebook group.

Thursday 7 July 2011

2011 Gi60 US/UK Collaboration Award Recipient

All proceeds from Gi60 Live US go to the Gi60 US/UK Collaboration Award. This award is given annually to support the education of an undergraduate theater major at Brooklyn College who embodies the spirit of collaboration, and who dedicates themselves to strengthening the college and the community through service. We're delighted to announce this year's recipient: Latricia Davidson.

Ms. Davidson is a double major, BFA in Acting and BA in Communication. An international student who hails from Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. Davidson is a dynamic member of the college community who is the very definition of collaboration and service. Along with many activities in her home departments, her commitments include:
- Vice President: Brooklyn College Forensics Speech & Debate Team. She participated in CFA Tournaments in Baltimore as well as the International Forensics Association's tournament in Budapest, Hungary.
- Student Representative: Search Committee: Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts
- Student Represetative: Strategic Planning Forum, Hosted by President Gould of BC
- Student Representative: Community Planning Forum
- Moderator: Brooklyn College Town Halls
- Golden Key International Honors Society
- Brooklyn College Alumni Association Student Honoree
- Deans List (every semester!)

Ms. Davidson has performed in major roles in BC productions of Flyin' West, The Story, Julius Caesar, and she is preparing for an upcoming role in In the Next Room/The Vibrator Play. We are proud to support Ms. Davidson's education through monies raised by Gi60, and we thank Screaming Media and the staff of Gi60, the Department of Theater at Brooklyn College, and the actors, directors, stage managers, film crew and designers who donated their skills to the 2010 festival to make this award possible.

Saturday 25 June 2011

A Few Words from Anthony Ponzio, U.S. director



Gi60 has always been a wild ride, from the first days of figuring out where to dangle microphones and filming on three different camera formats through my introductory experience as a director three years ago, right up until today, a little more than a week past our 2011 festival – and the ride never gets old. There’s an energy, a chaotic enthusiasm, that sweeps through every member of the cast and crew as we work to put this thing together.
It starts right around the end of April, as the submission deadline approaches, and I just can’t help imagining what kinds of plays were written. Reading them is simply a thrilling experience and I am always left astounded not only by the pieces but by the subtle commonality that is expressed through hundreds of one-minutes plays submitted from around the world. We think and feel much the same things, clandestine emotions and haunting experiences, no matter where we were born.
Then the real fun begins, the process I feel so lucky to be a part of: bringing those pieces to life. You wouldn’t believe how deeply a director and cast can delve into sixty seconds worth of text. For the US contingent, three directors and thirteen actors and actresses, the work itself is an impending energy, always lurking over our shoulders as we hustle from room to room, making discoveries and breakthroughs just as our time runs out…it’s frustrating, rewarding, exhausting and exhilarating.
Oh, but it’s not over. All of the reading and rehearsing, the planning and coordinating, everything we’ve worked toward culminates with the festival itself. 50 plays in 50 minutes is a frenetic ride and the audience, a mix of dedicated returnees and excited first-timers, has never faltered in creating that perfect atmosphere, a mixture of uninhibited laughter, unexpected silences and unbridled enjoyment.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Gi60 2011 US and UK Festival - Thank You!



Our great thanks to everyone who made Gi60 2011: The International One Minute Play Festival a huge success: the playwrights, acting company, directors, stage managers, designers, film supervisors and film crew, and most of all our dedicated audiences. Thank you to the UK audience members who braved the elements and attended at the Viaduct Theatre. The rain couldn't dampen your enthusiasm or support! Thank you to the US audiences who conquered the maze of construction barriers to find the New Workshop Theater at Brooklyn College, and who gave so generously of their energy and wallets (we raised a little over $2,000.00 for next year's scholarship fund). More details on both events to follow.
Gi60 US plays will begin the editing process this week, and we hope to post to the Gi60 Channel on YouTube by late August - Gi60 UK plays may be available much sooner! Check this site for announcement of dates.
Thank you, and next stop: Gi60 Channel on YouTube and BBC Big Screen!!

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Gi60 is almost here

As you are all aware the Gi60 2011 live editions will be hitting stages in the UK and US this weekend (Fri 10 - Sun 12). I know rehearsals on both sides of the atlantic have been going very well and final prepaprations are being made for this years events. ScreamingMediaProductions is thrilled to be working once again with Leeds Meropolitan University and their fantastic film crew who will be live vision mixing the Gi60 UK live edition again this year. As part of our work with Leeds Met and the Regional Universities Network (The RUN) a select group of students from across the region have been given the opportunity to recieve training on multi camera direction and live vision mixing techniques. Working with the Leeds Met film crew and actors from ScreamingMediaProductions students participated in a workshop earlier this week (see photo) and will assist with the final recording of the UK live edition on Sun 12. Once again we are in debt to all our supporters (Dean Clough, Brooklyn College, BBC Big Screen, Leeds Met, Northern Broadsides) on both sides of the Atlantic for their continued support and enthusiasm for Gi60.

100 tiny plays... the fun starts Friday :o)

Thursday 2 June 2011

Ticket Information: Gi60 2011

Gi60 Live U.S. Edition:

Friday June 10, 8:00 pm, and Saturday June 11, at 8:00 pm.
Presented by the Department of Theater at Brooklyn College and ScreamingMediaProductions New Workshop Theater at Brooklyn College

Tickets: $10.00 - All proceeds go to the Gi60 Scholarship Fund at Brooklyn College. Reservations Strongly Recommended: (718) 951-5000 X 2768
(the theater complex is currently undergoing renovation: please leave extra time to walk around to the new entrance!)

Gi60 Live UK Edition:

Sunday June 12, 6:00 pm.
Presented by ScreamingMediaProductions, Dean Clough and Leeds Metropolitan University
Viaduct Theatre, Halifax, UK
Tickets: £6.00 (£4.00 concs)
Box Office: www.deanclough.com/arts

Monday 30 May 2011

Gi60 2011 selected plays

This years plays...
If we haven't got some of your info please let email us.

Gi60 2011: Final List of Plays for U.S. Venue:

1. And What a Fine Morning It Is, Trace Crawford  
2. Basket, Ron Burch, Los Angeles, CA
3. Cheaptix, Rosanne Manfredi, Bay Shore, NY
4. Cheer Up! Miles Butler, Brooklyn, NY
5. Checkered Past, Stacey Lane, Miamisburg, OH
6. Chicken on the Side of Road, Dwayne Yancey, Fincastle, WV
7. Circle of Star, Bruce Shearer, Melbourne, Australia
8. The Clown History of Warfare, John Lordan, Evanston, IL
9. Collar Bones, Tim Ericksson, New York, NY
10. The Cowboy and Jester, Rand Higbee, Hager City, WI
11. Cycles of the Moon, Jae Kamisen
12. The Dark, Aurora Stewart de Peña, Toronto, Canada
13. Deep Into October, Dwayne Yancey, Fincastle, WV
14. Do-Wop Ditty, Patricia Lin, New York, NY
15. A Drink w Myself, Victoria Daly, New York, NY  
16. Dog Walkers, Fordhollow              
17. Exit, Ruben Carbajal, Brooklyn, NY
18. A Foggy Day in a Certain Part of Scotland, Mark Harvey Levine, Pasadena, CA
19. Fork Peter Etherington, Leeds, UK
20. Freshman Experience, Dan Morra, Middletown, PA
21. The History of Dance, Alex Dremann, Philadelphia, PA
22. Illness, Jim MacNerland, Los Angeles, CA
23. Inside Out, Steven Ayckbourn, Scarborough, UK
24. The Last Sliver, Catherine Noah, Medford, OR  
25. Life is a Game Show, Joe Fontana Brooklyn, NY
26. Losing on the Winning End, Sonora Chase, New York, NY
27. Head Screw, Alan Jozwiak, Cincinnati, OH
28. Maggie, Alex Bernstein, Cranford, NJ
29. Mound Conference, Tom Moran, Fairbanks, AK
30. My Best Friend, Yohanan Kaldi, Tel Aviv, Israel
31. Nothing, Kevin Clyne, Bethpage, NY
32. Palintology, Steve Ansell, Leeds, UK
33. Parent Teacher, Arthur M. Jolly, Marina del Rey,CA  
34. Pass the Green Beans, Rhea McCallum, Downey, CA
35. Pizazzoline, Tom Carrozza, New York, NY
36. The Recycling Gang, Ivy Vale, New York, NY
37. A Relief, Jenny Grosdas, London, UK
38. Slow As You Can, Steve Kaliski, Brooklyn, NY
39. Soapbox, Eoin Carney, Pittsburgh, PA
40. So You Know, Ron Fromstein, Toronto, CA
41. Spading, Alex Broun, Greenwich, Australia
42. Spying, Sara Farrington, Brooklyn, NY
43. Tech No Language, Mack Exilus , Queens, NY
44. Voice and Dictation, Helen Huff, New York, NY
45. Vows, Claudia Haas, White Bear Lake,MN
46. Walking Into the Dawn, John Hawkhead, Somerset, UK
47. Wave Farewell, Hugh Cardiff, Dublin, Ireland
48. Welcome Back Home, Frank Solorzano, Brooklyn, NY
49. When, Anthony Ponzio, Brooklyn, NY
50. World Dissosiaton, Robert Castle, Collingswood, NJ


Gi60 2011: Final List of Plays for UK Venue:

1. Tim Eriksson, More Than Words, New York, NY
2. Luke Galloway, Gone in 60, Harrogate, UK
3. Matt Johnson, Lamenting Darkness, Harrogate, UK
4. Anthony Ponzio, Open, wide, New York, US
5. Aurora Stewart de Peña, Birds, Toronto, Canada
6. Jordan Tucker, The Duel, Pontefract,UK
7. Ron Morelli, Paper Cut, Michigan, USA
8. Hedley Brown, The Skeptical Skeptic, Leeds, UK
9. Amy L Bernstein, Here, then gone, Baltimore, Maryland, US
10. Lorna Poustie, Intermission
11. Kieran Borchard, Cuts, Harrogate North Yorkshire, UK
12. Ray Castleton, The Interview, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK
13. Alex Bernstein, A Qualified apology, Cranford, New Jersey, NJ
14. Joel Dean, Playwright, York, UK
15. Mack Exilus, 90% vs 10%, Queens, New York, US
16. Dwayne Yancey, Christmas Music, Fincastle, Virginia, USA
17. Terry Collins, The Power of Negative Thinking, Harrogate, UK
18. Richard Nathan, KETRULIS, THE ELDER GOD
19. Amy Ignatow, Friendly, USA
20. Anton Krasauskas, Fear of filing, Castleford, UK
21. Olivia Arieti, Discounts, Italy
22. Yohanan Kaldi, Martha... Martha, Tel Aviv, Israel
23. Emily Lawrenson, Giftwrap, Harrogate, UK
24. Rosanne Manfredi, Thoughts on a funeral, Bay Shore New York, US
25. Catherine Russo, Java jibberish, Medford, New York, USA
26. Meron Langsner, The One Minute, Non Musical, LA BOHEME for one or more actors, USA
27. Mark Harvey Levine, Pickles, Pasadena, California, USA
28. Joel Dean,Pickles, York, North Yorkshire, UK
29. Steven Ayckbourn, Trip of a lifetime, Scarborough, UK
30. Steven Ayckbourn, Outside in, Scarborough, UK
31. Laurel Lockhart, Jim, New York,US
32. David Clegg, Wind Blown Cherry Blossoms, Harrogate, UK
33. Thomas J. Misuraca, Last Date First, Tarzana, California, USA
34. Altenir Silva, Life, Love, Lost, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
35. Ron Burch, Beer Fairy, Los Angeles, CA, US
36. Eoin Carney, Talk, Pittsburgh, USA
37. Ibrahim Baba Lawan, The Fun 2011, Damascus, Syrian Arab Republic
38. Will Keyes Byrn, One Pain Is Less'ned By Another's Anguish, Sydney, Australia
39. Alex Dremann, A Tragic Story, Philadelphia, USA
40. Nancy Lombardo, It isn't everyday, New York, US
41. Rose Burnett Bonczek, Pirate's Day, Brooklyn, New York, USA
42. Aaron Alon, Devine Justice, Pearland, Texas, USA
43. Alex Bernstein, Nothing, Cranford New Jersey, USA
44. Jess West, Lost Bag, York, North Yorkshire, UK
45. Liberty Hutchinson, Cat & dog, York, North Yorkshire, UK
46. Ted Wenskus, Budget from Hell, Rochester, New York, USA
47. (Yr5) St Francis’ Catholic Primary School, The Baddest Boy in Town, London, UK
48. Jordan Tucker, The Epic Struggle, Pontefract, UK
49. Jasmine Bown, Soundtrack, Dominican Republic
50. Oscar Allen, Sci-Fi Soap Opera, Otley, West Yorkshire, UK

Monday 16 May 2011

Gi60 New York - How it all started

Gi60 Director Rose Burnett Bonczek on the history of Gi60 in New York and to Brooklyn College

When Steve first invited me and the New York gang to join Gi60, I had no clue what that meant. At all. I only knew from having worked with Steve in the past, that when he invited you to a party, you said 'yes, and...'. My colleagues in the department of theater at Brooklyn College kind of scratched their heads and said 'OK, that sounds weird, but sure, go ahead.' They gave us the theater, tech support, and I gathered students, alums, and 'Pros from Dover'; professional actors to serve as mentors for our students, and to be calming voices of experience should this evening of fifty plays jump the rails - a very real possibility. One of my acting students, Randall Ehrmann, was a double major in film - and as my nickname was and is "The Luddite", he walked me through the finer points of filming, the technology needed to eventually upload the plays to the web, and he grabbed two friends to ‘volunteer’ as camera operators. We borrowed three separate cameras, none of the equipment really matched, and we had only one performance to get it right.


On the night of the show, we had more people in the New Workshop Theater than I had ever seen in that space. Sold out; people were sitting on steps, we snuck others in to the booth, and others huddled near the camera operators having made a solemn vow not to breath or sneeze during the filming. The actors and I looked at each other before going on. I still remember my dear friend and damn fine actress Joan Lunoe looking at me before the show and saying 'Rose, I have no idea what's going to happen.' I looked at her and said 'Neither do I.' I'm sure that was reassuring to hear from one's director... I gave a pre show speech, clapped hands for slate, and we were off. Fifty plays. In fifty minutes. The energy from the audience was insane, I mean utterly, kinetically, joyfully insane. They had never seen anything like it. We had never done anything like it. We not only made it through, but at the end, the audience went crazy. They shouted, applauded, stomped, snorted, and were - well - giddy is the only word that comes to mind. We had done it. We performed 50 plays. In one night. The audience knew something special had just been born; and so did we.



Tuesday 3 May 2011

A Few Words From...


Gi60 Writer
Steven Ayckbourn (UK) 

Tell us who you are in ten words?
A frustrated sleep walker - dreaming he is awake.

What was the title and year of your first Gi60 entry?
Spelling Lesson”

What do you think of Gi60 and the One minute play format?
It shouldn’t really work, but it seems to - more often than not.

All our plays are recorded and posted on the web for worldwide viewing. What do you think of this unique element of Gi60?
Handy if you can’t see the original. All theatre is better live.

Do you have a favourite playwright?
I don’t have favourites, only memorable moments by various writers. Orton, Chekhov, Waugh jump to mind - and then there’s Shakespeare…

Why? (10 words or less)? 
Why is it I like green tea while others don’t?

Give us your link (your own website, writers group, forum, blog, publisher, review etc.)
www.stevenayckbourn.co.uk

Final Word: 
Words are wonderful for entertaining, but hopeless for explaining.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Thank you for all your submissions

The submission deadline for Gi60 Live 2011 has now passed and with over 500 tiny plays submitted we have an exciting and long process ahead, reading, discussing and choosing the final 100. Thank you to everybody who submitted.

best regards

Steve and Rose

Thursday 28 April 2011

A Few Words From







Gi60 Writer
Bruce Shearer (Australia)


Tell us who you are in ten words?
A person who loves telling stories.

What was the title and year of your first Gi60 entry?
What a Clown and Date in a Dumpster 2007

What do you think of Gi60 and the One minute play format?
It is a great challenge which sharpens writing skills.

All our plays are recorded and posted on the web for worldwide viewing. What do you think of this unique element of Gi60?
I think it is a wonderful opportunity for playwrights.

Do you have a favourite playwright?
Anton Chekhov

Why?
His comedies are dramatic and his dramas full of comedy.

Final Word
Gi60 is a marvellous opportunity to develop new work!

Friday 22 April 2011

A Few Words From


Gi60 Writer:
Meron Langsner

Somewhere in the press coverage of the Gi60 festval, the one-minute play format is described as the theatrical equivalent of a haiku. I believe that there is something to that (speaking as someone who has also published haiku). Working with Gi60 over the past several years has sharpened my awareness of the need to make every word count, and that awareness has carried over into my longer work as well. The care one has to take in each syllable of a short form translates into an awareness of the rhythms of language in librettos and full length plays as well.
In 2009 I had the pleasure of seeing a live Gi60 performance for the first time at Brooklyn College. As several of the actors are regulars I experienced a sense of meeting celebrities; as I had been following their their work for years via video since first becoming involved with the festival in 2005. It was a heartwarming surprise to learn that they felt similarly about meeting me after performing so many of my plays year after year.

Gi60 has also been important to me as a launching point for other publications and projects. 'Waiters for Godot' and 'Call Waiting for Godot' were joined with a longer parody, Whining for Godot, to be published in the Smith & Kraus anthology, Best 10 Minute Plays 2010 under the title The Godot Variations. My 2009 play, Culty-Mates (A Ritual) was included in the Northwest Playwrights’ Alliance’s annual anthology NorthNorthwest that same year. One of my projects from last year, the monologue Lying Makes Me Feel Like a God was the start of an ongoing video collaboration with the actress Zillah Glory.

The multimedia aspect of the festival is another thing that makes it special. The fact of the plays being on YouTube has allowed me not only to enjoy the performance I’ve attended again or experience the ones I’ve missed, but to share and market my writing fairly effortlessly and with the power of an easily accessible medium. The level of skill apparent in the shooting and editing of the videos does justice to the talents of the actors involved.

I’m really proud to continue to play a part in Gi60. I hope to watch the project continue to grow, and to keep growing along with it.

Check out merons work in the featured videos or go to the Gi60 you tube channel to explore further. A news story about Merons work can be found at:  http://gsas.tufts.edu/about/graduateenews/feb2011/february2011GradHighlights.htm

Monday 18 April 2011

Join the Gi60 You Tube channel

20,000 visitors can't be wrong. Get a fully rounded one minute cyber experience by joining the Gi60 you Tube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/gi60channel

Sunday 17 April 2011

Gi60 2011 Submission Deadline

The Deadline for submissions is the last day of April at midnight. The submissions so far have been excellent, we only have a couple of weeks left so i'm looking forward tpo the usual last minute flood of submissions and some late nights reading.