1,001 Plays connects playwrights and audiences from worlds apart
This year student playwrights will write on the theme of ABUNDANCE
1,001 Plays is an annual 10-minute play festival presented by Global Partners worldwide - the first international new play exchange of its kind.
Students write, perform, direct and dramaturg original works for the stage, exploring multiple perspectives on a single idea. These short student works are performed live online and followed by a talkback, allowing both students and audiences the opportunity to share, reflect and respond.
Learn more about 1,001 Plays
Upcoming Events
Mason Fairfax Reading
April 10, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. ET
We invite college, university, and other theater training programs to join our network of Global Partners at no cost to their students or institution.
Global Partners agree to:
- designate one faculty mentor to serve as our contact and advise at least one student playwright in the development and submission of their play, scene or monologue
- assist students in rehearsing and hosting staged readings of original 10-minute plays or recording scenes and monolgoues as assigned
- provide the technological support to enable video-chatting for the 10-minute play presentations and allow the playwrights, artists, and audience to connect in real-time for post-show discussion
If you would like to become a Global Partner, email a completed Global Partner form to plays@gmu.edu
George Mason University's Global Partners
All documents are available in the following languages:
العربية
درى
Deutsch
English
Español
فارسى
Français
Русский
普通话
Faculty Mentors
Mason Korea
George Mason University Korea
Eunice C. Kim serves as a faculty member with George Mason University Korea.
She has her Master of Arts in English Literature and a Bachelor of Arts in English. Her current research interests include investigations in Digital Composition, Artificial Intelligence, and 19th century British novels and narratives.
Moi University
Christopher ODHIAMBO Joseph Professor of Literature and Applied Drama/Theatre at Moi University’s Department of Literature, Theatre and Film Studies. Dean School of Graduate Studies and National Chairman, Kenya National Drama and Film Festival Committee. He is an arts adjudicator and facilitator. Has written and directed plays. Has published widely in the fields of Literature, Applied Drama/Theatre, Popular Culture and Film. Has presented papers and keynote addresses on various topics in Literature, Theatre and Popular Culture in conferences and Seminars. In 2007 was awarded a two year Melon Research Fellowship at Wits University at the Department of African Literature and Dramatic Art Division. In 2013 was awarded Wits University’s SPARC Distinguished Scholar Award and is also Alexander van Humboldt Senior Research Fellow. Here are sampled publications: Volume Editor with Christine Matzke, Lena van der Hoven and Hilde Roos, African Theatre 19; Opera & Music Theatre (2020); Guest Editor Ricarda de Haas, Marie-Anne Kohl and Samuel Ndogo.”Power to the People?”—Patronage, Intervention and Transformation in African Performance Arts” Matatu 5,1 Journal for African, Culture and Society, (2019); Orientations of Drama, Theatre and Culture. Opiyo Mumma, Evan Mwangi and Christopher Odhiambo, Eds. Nairobi: KDEA (1998); Theatre for Development in Kenya: In Search of Appropriate Procedure and Methodology; ‘In Search of New Performance Spaces: Theatre Practitioners and FM Radio Stations in Kenya” in Ed. Kene Igweonu and Osita Okegbue. Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre3: Making Space, Rethinking Drama
Nanjing University
Gao Ziwen “Alex” - associate professor at Nanjing University, head of the Department of Theatre, Film and TV. He received a bachelor's degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Nanjing University and a PhD in Theatre. In 2011, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University. In 2013, he participated in the Austria Resident Artist project. In 2019, he was selected as Excellent Youth of Social Sciences in Jiangsu Province. His main research interests are avant-garde theater and theater criticism.
Published books: The Thankless Children of Civilization: Staging China in American Theatre. Translation: American Avant Garde Theater: A History (written by Arnold Aronson). Stage Plays: Day and Night Here (2012), Pollution (2013) and Hometown (2019).
（高子文：南京大学副教授，文学院戏剧影视艺术系主任。南京大学汉语言文学本科，戏剧戏曲学硕士、博士。2011年哥伦比亚大学访问学者。2013年参加奥地利驻地艺术家项目。2019年入选江苏省社科优青。主要研究领域为先锋戏剧、戏剧批评。出版有个人专著《文明的逆子们：美国现代戏剧的中国叙事》，译著《美国先锋戏剧：一种历史》。创作有舞台剧剧本《这里的白天和夜晚》《污染和净化》《故乡》。）
Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
CARLOS GARCíA ROSELL ARAMBURÚ is Director of the Performing Arts area at Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) since 2020. Actor, theater director, and university professor since 2011.
Santa Catarina Federal University
Paulo Ricardo Berton Playwright, Theater Director, Translator and Professor both at the undergrad (ART) and graduate (PPGLit) levels at the Santa Catarina Federal University (UFSC, Brazil). B.A in Theater Direction (UFRGS, Brazil/1999), M.A in Literature (PUCRS, Brazil/2007) and Ph.D. in Theater (CU Boulder, USA/2010) with a full doctorate scholarship CAPES/Fulbright.
Credits: The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter (2016, translator, actor and director), ART (2018, translator and director). Publications: The Vietnamese Theatrical Tradition in the Plot of Monsun (2017), Conflict as the Foundation of Drama (2019).
Memberships: Forum Junge Bühnenangeh.riger (Berlin/2001), Lincoln Center's Director's Lab (NY/2010). Secretary of Culture of UFSC (2012-2014). Coordinates the NEEDRAM (Research Center in Theatre Directing and Dramatic Writing), theSBEDR (Brazilian Seminar of Dramatic Writing), and the Miletrê Theater Company.
University of Toronto
Djanet Sears is a playwright, a director, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Her work has graced such stages as the National Arts Centre, Mirvish Productions, Tarragon Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Obsidian Theatre, Black Theatre Workshop, Centaur Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre, the Public Theatre, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Crossroads Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Grand Theatre, St. Louis Black Repertory, Canadian Stage, and Factory Theatre.
Best known plays, Harlem Duet and The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God, have been widely published and translated. She has been awarded several honours including a Governor General's Literary Award, a Canadian Screenwriting Award, the Chalmers Canadian Play Award, Dora Mavor Moore Awards, a Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award and a Gold Prize at the International Radio Festival of New York. She is a founding member of the Obsidian Theatre Company, and the editor of two anthologies: Testifyin': Contemporary African Canadian Drama, Vols. I & II.
Universitatea de Arte Târgu Mures
Elise Wilk
(Photo and bio coming soon)
Programs
Mason Korea (South Korea)
Details forthcoming
Moi University (Kenya)
Details forthcoming
Nanjing University’s Department of Theater, Film and Television (China)
Nanjing University’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program is affiliated with the Department of Theater, Film and Television in the School of Liberal Arts. It began in 2005, taking 30 students each year, and focuses on cultivating practical talents in the field of theater, including playwriting, directing, acting, criticism and theater management.
NEEDRAM at Santa Catarina Federal University, Florianópolis, (Brazil)
The Theater Directing and Dramatic Writing Research Group (NEEDRAM), certified by CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and linked to the Graduate Program in Literature (PPGLit) and the Undergraduate Department of Arts (ART), both at the Santa Catarina Federal University UFSC/Brazil, aims to research and promote Dramatic Theatre. In addition to courses taught, undergrad completion work, theses and dissertations advisements, the NEEDRAM develops and takes part in several research and extension projects, among which the following stand out:
a. 1,001 PLAYS – Series of 10-minutes staged readings after plays written by UFSC Dramatic Writing students and coordinated by George Mason University (USA) with the participation of 7 other Universities.
b. SBEDR (Brazilian Dramatic Writing Conference) – An event that brings together national and international playwrights, professors and researchers of the field to present authors, read plays and discuss the current state of Dramatic Writing.
c. MILETRÊ – NEEDRAM’s theatre company whose last production was ‘The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter’ a Restoration play by Sir George Etherege.
d. WORKSHOPS – MST (Landless Worker’s Movement) settlements, FCC/CIC (Integrated Culture Centre) in Florianópolis and NETI (Seniority Studies Research Center) .
e. ASSOCIATIONS – Member of ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in Performing Arts, certified by CNPq.
Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (CDTPS) at University of Toronto (Canada)
The undergraduate program at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (CDTPS) offers a unique combination of rich and rigorous scholarship with high standards of practical training. The program provides students with an integrated set of critical and artistic skills through which to engage with broader intellectual, social, and political issues in the Humanities and beyond. Along with courses in theatre and performance theory and history, dramatic literature, dramaturgy, technology, and practice-based lab courses, the CDTPS offers introductory and advanced studio courses in acting, directing, playwriting, production & design, performance & technology. The Digital Dramaturgy Lab (squared) (DDL) 2 and the newly founded BMO Lab in Creative Research in the Arts, Performance, Emerging Technologies and AI, with their international scope and interdisciplinary approach, present the students with a unique opportunity to develop projects exploring the use of new technologies in the context of the performing arts.
Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (Peru)
Universitatea de Arte Târgu Mures (Romania)
Details forthcoming
Exchange Recordings
2024
Nanjing University
Santa Catarina Federal University
George Mason University, Fairfax
Mason Korea
Moi University
2023
George Mason University, Fairfax
Moi University
Nanjing University
Santa Catarina Federal University
University of Toronto
Universitatea de Arte Târgu Mures
2022
George Mason University - Fairfax
Mason Korea
Moi University
Nanjing University
Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
Santa Catarina Federal University
University of Toronto
Past Programs
2021-2022
2020-2021
How to support us
Hear from our students
We thank all our supporters for their generosity, including individual donors and the following granting organizations:
