Event

ShortLived 2.0

After issuing an open challenge to the Bay Area theater community on its website www.pianofight.com, PianoFight, in association with Combined Artform, is proud to announce the return of its three-month playwriting competition ShortLived 2.0, running every Friday and Saturday night at 8:00pm in Studio 250 at Off-Market from April 3 -ÂÂ June 27, in which local playwrights and theater groups will compete for audiences who will decide who wins the top prize of a one-month run of a full length production.

The winner of last year'ÂÂs competition, Daniel Heath, was awarded the opportunity to pen a full-length piece to be produced by PianoFight for a month-long run in the theater the company manages, Studio 250. Heath delivered a whopper, titled "ÂFORKING!"ÂÂ which premiered to sold out houses in the month of January and made its Los Angeles debut in February at Combined Artform's Theatre Asylum.

This year, Heath will be back to defend his title as ShortLived Champion against not only other playwrights, but also theater groups who will write and perform their own work in the competition. ShortLived 2.0 is broken into six rounds, with a final Championship Weekend June 26-27. Each round will last two weeks, and feature 8 short plays, one of which will be written and performed by a local theater group (one group will compete each round), all vying for a shot to compete in the Championship Weekend.

To decide the winner, audiences will be given scorecards and asked to rate each of the 8 pieces, including the piece by the local theater group. At the end of the round, the scores will be tallied and the 4 lowest scoring pieces will be dropped from the line-up, and 4 new pieces introduced in the next round. The top 4 scoring pieces will stay on to the next round. The piece that wins the round (scores the most points with audiences) will clinch a spot in the Championship Weekend. The piece which scores the highest at Championship Weekend will win the top prize of a full length, one-month run at Studio 250 at Off-Market.