Audience Awards $5K to Local Artists in PianoFight's ShortLived VI

Five thousand dollars are at stake in the largest audience-judged theater competition in the country, PianoFight's ShortLived VI. Thirty six plays from Bay Area writers, theater companies, sketch groups, and dance troupes vie for the audience's affection over the seven week competition to crown the Bay Area's best and win $5,000. The regular season of ShortLived runs June 15 through July 22, with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7pm on PianoFight's Main Stage. The ShortLived Finals happen August 3 through August 5, with performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7pm and an additional 9:30pm performance on Friday, August 4. 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 $18-$40 and available at www.pianofight.com

"It's the sixth time we've produced this mega-competition, and it's pretty cool to look back at the talent that's competed in past years and see artists who are just kicking ass," says PianoFight Artistic Director Rob Ready. "Bennett Fisher's latest, The Speakeasy, just opened to big fanfare in SF. Megan Cohen has had plays on three continents and just had a piece workshopped by Berkeley Rep. Jamie King and Nicole Sun are writing television in LA for Jessica Jones and Dr. Ken respectively. There's an insane pool of talent in the Bay Area, and ShortLived has consistently been a vehicle for that talent to strut their stuff. Beyond all that, audiences love it because unlike most other festivals or competitions, where there are panels of judges or committees, in ShortLived the audience's opinion is the one that counts. They get to decide which local artists are awarded $5,000 and we know they take that seriously, and appreciate it. ShortLived is populist theater at its finest."

Each of the first six 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. The audience scores each piece on a scale of 1-10. The piece that scores highest in each round clinches a spot in The Finals (August 3-5). The group that wins The Finals is awarded $5,000.

Thousands of audience members scoring over one hundred performers in thirty six plays over seven weeks to crown one champion - PianoFight's ShortLived VI 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.

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Revival of a Musical - Top 3

1. Ragtime

35.3% of votes

2. Chess

30% of votes

3. CATS: The Jellicle Ball

20% of votes

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