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Blink and you might miss super short plays
A festival of 60-second-plays which crosses the Atlantic is weeks away and the scripts are all in. Arts reporter Nick Ahad on Gone In 60 Seconds.
"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Hemingway considered this one of his best works. A short story in six words written for a bet. Short though it was, it has character, plot, a whole world created in those six words.
Writers from around the world will be hoping that they have achieved something similar with their own short works, which the artistic directors of Gi60 are poring over.
Gi60 is a short play festival that is held this year in Leeds and Brooklyn. It began in 2003 when Steve Ansell, then associate director of Harrogate Theatre, was working with theatre's new writing group.
Reading a book by American playwright Christopher Durang, Ansell read that the author had taken part in a one-minute play festival.
"I thought it was a great idea for our writing groups to use," says Ansell.
"But I thought that one-minute was pushing it a little bit, so instead we staged a two-minute play evening."
The members of the two writing groups were given the task of coming up with a 120-second-long play and 28 of the best were performed in one evening at Harrogate Theatre. Enthused by the response to his idea, Ansell staged another festival a year later. The following year, he began to think bigger.
"I'm a bit of a tech-geek, and love new gadgets and things. I was talking to a friend of mine, Rose Bonczek, who is a professor at Brooklyn College and she loved the idea of a 60-second play festival. It was around the time that phones were improving and able to hold video clips of around a minute and I thought it was a great way to use the technology that was available to make the idea bigger."
In 2005, the minute-long plays were staged in both Brooklyn and Harrogate, with all the plays filmed and then put on the internet where people all over the world could see them.
By 2006, the news about the festival had grown. Initially, the writers and actors were from the Harrogate writing groups and students at Brooklyn College, but by 2006 Gi60 was receiving submissions from all over the world.
"We relied on our own contacts to generate the material for the first few years and used actors we already knew of, but word began to spread about the festival through the internet and we found we were getting submissions from all over," says Ansell.
"We did a lot of work promoting the festival through the internet, contacting writing groups and asking people to send in their submissions."
In February this year, Ansell left his post as associate director at Harrogate Theatre and took over Gi60 as a private venture. This year is set to be the biggest yet for Gi60.
"In 2006, the Americans had really taken to the idea and the festival was getting a lot of support in Brooklyn.
"This year we have moved from Harrogate to Leeds University and have been working with graduates and post-graduates from Leeds Uni and Leeds Met, as well as the people in Brooklyn."
Last year, the BBC Big Screen came on board and the plays were screened in Leeds's Millennium Square.
Midnight on Wednesday was the deadline for submissions and now Ansell and Bonczek are selecting the 100 plays which will be performed – 50 in Leeds and 50 in Brooklyn.
"We've had more than 350 scripts submitted. Some of the quality of writing is very impressive," says Ansell.
The festival's two artistic directors will whittle the scripts down to their shortlist of 100 and 50 will be performed on June 12 at Stage @ Leeds University, the campus's new theatre and 50 will be performed at Brooklyn College on June 13 and 14. All the performances will be put on the Gi60 website, www. screamingmediaproductions.net for 12 months. They will also be screened on the Big Screen in Millennium Square throughout the year.
"We divvy the plays between us. Some of them work better in America – a play about the deep south of America will obviously work better over in Brooklyn – but most of the work can play in either venue," says Ansell.
"What's great about the festival is that it makes the writers focus very hard on the message of the piece – when you have 60 seconds there is no time to waste."
For more information log on to www.screamingmedia
productions.net
Some of the writers shortlisted
Terry Collins, Harrogate: A writer who has been associated with Gi60 since its beginning, he has successfully submitted work to all four GI60 events. His one minute plays Golgotha and Penguins are both under consideration for this year's festival.
Ivor Martinic, Zagreb: This is Ivor's first submission to Gi60 and he represents exactly what the festival is about. He found out about the festival on the web, submitted a play via the Gi60 email address and will see his work performed live in Brooklyn or Leeds via the website.
Bruce Shearer, Melbourne: This is the second year that Bruce has had work chosen. His play Date in a Dumpster was performed as part of the UK leg of the festival last year. Bruce is the award-winning author of many plays, short stories and poems both for adults and children. He has been a writer, producer and director, and his plays have been performed both in Australia and overseas.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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