(HOBOKEN, NJ) -- The New Jersey One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) returns for The 8th Annual New Jersey One-Minute Play Festival! 1MPF is the country’s largest and longest continually running community-engaged theatre project, aimed at exploring local topics, ideas, trends, and seeding conversations for, by, and about artists and citizens of NJ. The marathon evening of one-minute plays by some of New Jersey’s established and emerging playwrights and directors will have three performances: Saturday, June 30 at 8:00pm, Sunday, July 1 at 3:00pm and 7:00pm. All performances take place at Mile Square Theatre (1400 Clinton Street, Hoboken, NJ).
This year's festival features brand new one-minute plays by: Brad Baron, Della Brown, Marian Calabro, Alexander Doyle, Mike Duffy, Laura Ekstrand, Lisa Huberman, Steven Haworth, Chisa Hutchinson, Stephen Hiltner, Margo Hammond, Angela Kariotis, Michele Aldin Kushner, Ari Laura Kreith, Mayumi Lane, Lyn Marie Macy, TS Murphy, Lisa Mary MacNair, Erin Mallon, Benjamin Marshall, Chris O'Connor, Barry M. Putt, Nicole Pandolfo, Seamus Scanlon, Sylvia Schwartz, David Lee White, Stanley Werse, Amy Witting, Karin Diann Williams, and Brendon Votipka.
Plays will be directed by Andrew Binger, Meredith Burns, Jillian Carucci, Jessica Fitcher, Steve Gaissert, John P. Keller, Chris Kuiken, and Enormovs Muñoz. The festival is curated by Dominic D'Andrea and Caitlin Wees.
“We’re excited to celebrate 8 years of 1MPF in NJ, and 3 years of partnership with Mile Square Theatre”, says 1MPF Producing Artistic Director, Dominic D’Andrea. “This moment in our country is full of strife, uncertainty, and a feeling of being more divided than ever. It’s also a moment that is fueled with hope, visions of the future, and asking big and important questions. All of this is reflected in the work, and as a community, these artists are grappling with some necessary bigger-picture ideas. The NJ community should come and experience this. It’s exciting.”
Chris O’Connor, Mile Square Theatre’s Artistic Director adds, “We hosted the New Jersey One-Minute Play Festival last year, and it was a great success. It was thrilling to have so many New Jersey theatre artists in our theatre, creating such thought-provoking material. It was a new experience for our local audience, and people were really delighted by the work. We are proud to host again this year and to open our doors to the New Jersey theatre community.”
The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) is a grass-roots community-engaged theatre festival, founded by Producing Artistic Director, Dominic D’Andrea. #1MPF is social barometer practice, which investigates local zeitgeist and narratives through dialogue, consensus building, and a performance of minute-long moments generated by each community. #1MPF works in partnership with traditional theatres, cultural institutions, and social justice institutions sharing educational, community-focused, or public service missions across the country. The aim is to create locally sourced community events, with the goal of promoting the spirit of radical inclusion. #1MPF includes participants of different points of age, race, culture, gender, socio-economic background, and stage of career. The work attempts to reflect the values, topics, trends, styles, ideas, and big conversations that bubble up to the surface in each community.
Partnerships have been created with theaters in over 20 cities including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New Jersey, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Anchorage, Honolulu, St. Louis, Providence, and more, with partnering institutions like Primary Stages, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Trinity Rep, New Georges at New York City Center, Z-Space, Victory Gardens Theatre, 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, 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, Sam Hunter, Karen Hartman, Robert Askins, Colman Domingo, José Rivera, Craig Lucas, Mike Daisey, Greg Kotis, Michael John Garcés, & over to 1400 celebrated, emerging, and midcareer playwrights.
About Mile Square Theatre
Mile Square Theatre was founded in 2003 by Artistic Director Chris O’Connor as a non-profit professional theatre. Its mission is to enrich and engage the region through the production of professional theatre and innovative arts education. MST produces professional theatre year round, including shows for young audiences and its annual festival of plays about baseball, 7th Inning Stretch. MST is excited to collaborate with #1MPF and to present The One-Minute Play Festival in its Hoboken venue. MST also offers other community building programs, including the MST Dance Academy and MST Theatre classes.
MST Season Sponsorships: CSBK, Bijou Properties, Ironstate, Jet.com, Halstead Property, The Kocis Family, The Kowalski Family, Little City Books, The O'Callaghan Family, The Rockefeller Group. Mile Square Theatre is supported by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey Council on the Arts/Department of state, a partner agency of the National endowment for the arts and by funds from the national endowment for the arts, administered by the Hudson county office of cultural & heritage affairs, Thomas A. Degise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
