Primary Stages To Host FIFTH ANNUAL NEW YORK ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL

Primary Stages will host the Fifth Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival, the proceeds from which will benefit the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA). The New York One-Minute Play Festival will take place Sunday, October 16 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street), the Off-Broadway home of Primary Stages.

One-minute plays by more than 50 established and emerging playwrights were commissioned for the one-night-only event. A one-minute play is a highly theatrical singular moment; it is a form of theatre that looks at the most immediate storytelling event or core emotional content.

The festival will feature works by Rachel Axler, Neena Beber, Maria Alexandra Beech, David Cale, Raul Castillo, Joshua Conkel, Jorge Ignacio Cortinas, Lydia R. Diamond, Kristoffer Diaz, Bathsehba Doran, Christine Evans, David Grimm, Jason Grote, Tina Howe, Sam Hunter, Chisa Hutchinson, David Henry Hwang, Mara Jebsen, Nick Jones, Greg Kotis, Claire LaZebnik, J.C. Lee, Lisa Loomer, Donald Margulies, Michael Mitnick, Janine Nabers, LuAnne Rice, KJ Sanchez, Tommy Smith, Lloyd Suh, Nilaja Sun and Adam Szymkowicz.

Several writers from the ESPA family will also contribute, including faculty members Liz Duffy Adams, Brooke Berman, Bekah Brunstetter, David Caudle, Cusi Cram, Kara Lee Corthron, Adam Gwon, Michael Hollinger, Rajiv Joseph, Lila Rose Kaplan, Kait Kerrigan, Neil LaBute, Craig Lucas, Winter Miller, Julian Sheppard, Daniel Talbott and Ken Urban and playwriting students and alumni Joshua Allen, Micheline Auger, Marin Gazzaniga, Mariah MacCarthy, Stacy O'Neill, Melissa Ross, Vanessa Shealy and Kate Tarker.

The festival will include the direction of May Adrales, Dominic D'Andrea, Alex Corriea, Jackson Gay, Josh Hecht, West Hyler, Jessi D. Hill, Andrew Leynse, Jose Zayas, and more.

The One-Minute Play Festival was created in New York in 2007 by its curator, Dominic D'Andrea, to promote the spirit of radical inclusion for writers of different age, gender, race, culture and point of career. The one-minute play challenges the playwrights to expertly craft a theatrical moment. It requires a new sensibility to work in this deceptively small form.

The Festival has partnered with theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New Brunswick, and New York, where it is now an annual tradition. The program will allow Primary Stages to further its support and cultivation of established and emerging playwrights.

The New York One-Minute Play Festival will take place Sunday, October 16 at 2pm and 7pm at 59E59 Theaters, where Primary Stages is the resident theater company. Space is extremely limited. Tickets are available at the $20 and $50 levels through Ticket Central at www.ticketcentral.com or 212.279.4200, or by visiting the 59E59 Theaters Box Office, 59 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison).

Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) is a multidisciplinary school with departments in acting, writing, and directing. Now in its fifth year, ESPA has refined actors who have been seen on and off-Broadway, developed writers whose work has won awards and received workshops and productions, and served as a professional and artistic home for emerging talent. ESPA is defined by its strong commitment to collaboration through programs such as Detention, a monthly performance series that partners ESPA writers, actors, directors, and a faculty advisor in the creation of a unique evening of theater. Having provided a home to nearly 1,400 students, ESPA has become a leader in performing arts education through its excellence in training, unique collaboration and networking opportunities, and strong professional community. ESPA is open to all artists, in all stages of their careers.

Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting and sharing the art of playwriting. Under the leadership of Founder and Executive Producer Casey Childs, Artistic Director Andrew Leynse and Managing Director Elliot Fox, we operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing individual playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work.

Primary Stages produces new plays at 59E59 Theaters, where we have been the Resident Theater Company since its inauguration in 2004. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 100 new plays, including A.R. Gurney's Black Tie, Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate (Two 2009 Tony Award® nominations); Brooke Berman's Hunting and Gathering (one of New York Magazine's Top Ten Plays of 2008); Terrence McNally's Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams (starring Nathan Lane and Marian Seldes) and The Stendhal Syndrome (featuring Isabella Rossellini and Richard Thomas); Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa and Scotland); David Ives' All in the Timing and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S. debut).

In 2008, Primary Stages was honored with the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, which encompasses much more than the plays we produce for the stage. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings and our two flagship programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group and the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA). Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative-connections within the theater community.

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