Trinity Rep presents ‘The Every 28 hours Plays’

Posted 9/29/16

Trinity Rep invites the public to revisit the one-minute plays written on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri and performed at the theater in fall of 2015 to a second community-led performance of “The …

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Trinity Rep presents ‘The Every 28 hours Plays’

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Trinity Rep invites the public to revisit the one-minute plays written on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri and performed at the theater in fall of 2015 to a second community-led performance of “The Every 28 Hours Plays” on Monday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. New this year, the following evening, Tuesday, October 18 at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., 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 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 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 every day 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) 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.

For more information visit www.oneminuteplayfestival.com.

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