Trinity Rep Presents Reprise Performance of THE EVERY 28 HOURS PLAYS

Trinity Rep invites the public to revisit the one-minute plays written on the ground in Ferguson, MO and performed at the theater in fall of 2015 to a second community-led performance of The Every 28 Hours Plays on Monday, October 17th at 7:30PM.

New this year, the following evening, Tuesday, October 18th at 7:30PM and 9:30PM, Trinity Rep, The One-Minute Play Festival (1MPF), Community College of Rhode Island, University of Rhode Island, Wheaton College and the Southside Cultural Center with the City of Providence will present an evening of locally made one-minute plays entitled The One-Minute Play Festival: Our Response, created using the 1MPF community playmaking process and inspired by The Every 28 Hours Plays. All performances will take place at Trinity Rep at 201 Washington, St. in downtown Providence.

All events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Tickets may be reserved at www.trinityrep.com, by calling the box office at (401) 351-4242 or at the theater's box office.

Last year, Trinity Rep kicked-off The Every 28 Hours Plays, hosting a powerful evening of one-minute plays written by theater artists from around the country responding to the contested statistic that every 28 hours a black person is killed by a vigilante, security guard, or police. One year after the first performance, actors of varying ages, races and experiences will be reading the same 90 plays inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement at Trinity Rep, with simultaneous performances at the other participating theaters across the United States.

The next night's The One-Minute Play Festival: Our Response will be performed twice-once at 7:30pm and again at 9:30pm at Trinity Rep. Inspired by work coming out of specific community dialogue and playmaking workshops exploring race, civic engagement, and our political climate, these plays will be born from the hearts, minds, and experiences of our community and will explore equity, inclusion, and race, spurred by workshops led by The One-Minute-Play Festival's producing artistic director Dominic D'Andrea. Trinity Rep resident Acting Company member Joe Wilson, Jr. is producing the events.

"This whole movement is about building community-from the planning to the producing-we're rebuilding, repairing, kindling and growing relationships," says Joe Wilson, Jr., Trinity Rep company member and The Every 28 Hours Plays producer, "What we do as a theater goes far beyond the six plays we put on every season. We are fighting everyday for people to have safe spaces to talk about the things that matter in their communities-race, diversity, class, division. At Trinity Rep, we are a social services institution, an educational institution, a political institution, and yes, a cultural institution."

Community Engagement Coordinator Rebecca Noon adds, "There's a danger for larger mainstream organizations to become complacent and think that everyone else can get messy in these complicated societal problems, but that we can stay apart from it or somehow not take a stand. Last year's performance of The Every 28 Hours Plays showed us all what it felt like to stand up, and I'm deeply moved at the response we're having at bringing the work back. Trinity Rep has the resources to produce and organize something like this, but we know it has to belong to Providence and Rhode Island in order for it to mean anything or move the needle the way we all need it to."

THE ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (1MPF)

1MPF is America's largest and longest running 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 across the country sharing educational, community-focused, or public service missions. 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.

Annual partnerships have been created in over 20 cities including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Trenton, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Seattle, Dallas, Austin, Indianapolis, Anchorage, Honolulu, St. Louis, and more, with partnering institutions like Primary Stages, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Second Stage Uptown, 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. For more information visit: www.oneminuteplayfestival.com

Trinity Repertory Company

The State Theater of Rhode Island, Trinity Repertory Company is now in its 53rd season. Since its founding in 1963, Trinity Repertory Company has been one of the most respected regional theaters in the country. Featuring the last permanent resident Acting Company in America, Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works for an estimated annual audience of approximately 145,000. Since 1963, the theater has produced 66 world premieres, mounted national and international tours, and, through its MFA program, trained hundreds of new actors and directors.

Subscriptions for the 2016-2017 season Ghosts of the Past, Dreams of the Future are now on sale. Shows include Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage book and lyrics by Jason Craig and music by Dave Malloy, Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Faithful Cheaters by Deborah Salem Smith and Fuente Ovejuna (The Sheep's Well) by Lope De Vega Carpio.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call the box office at (401) 351-4242 or visit Trinity Rep's website at www.trinityrep.com.