top of page
logo (1).png
Global Forms Theater Festival

Global Forms Theater Festival (GFTF) is presented in partnership with New York Theatre Salon. This one-of-a-kind festival is dedicated to showcasing the work of international and immigrant theater artists living in the United States and abroad. Through workshop presentations of new works, panel discussions, and knowledge-sharing sessions, GFTF explores humanity, freedom, home, and isolationism. Since its inception in 2020, the festival has collaborated with 300 artists from over 40 countries.

 

The fourth edition of GFTF will take place from

June 1-11, 2023, with the theme Green Theater. This year, the festival will maintain hiring collaborators who are immigrant artists, making this the very first festival with 100% immigrant artists employment.*

 

All events are free to attend and open to the public.

*by immigrant artists, we mean: artists working under F, J, O, EB, or other forms of eligible Employment-Based Immigrant Visas.

global forms banner.png
Announcing: Our 2023 Global Stage Artists
global forms artists discarded.png
global forms sacrifice alternate.png

The Discarded (Working Title)

The Discarded (Working Title) is a thought-provoking experimental work-in-progress performance that combines live theater, object performance, and multimedia installations to shed light on the impact of waste and migration on individuals and communities. Inspired by the themes of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck, The Discarded (Working Title) presents a poetic and experimental performance that explores the intertwined journeys of a piece of garbage who was used by New Yorker and sold to Asian developing countries to becomes new products, and an Asian immigrant, who immigrated to New York and eventually becomes a garbage collector. Both of them travel across the globe, experiencing deconstruction, ambition, self-doubt and revelation. These two stories seem irrelevant at first, but as the journey goes on, their trajectories begin to overlap. Through somatic experiences, the performance invites the audience to engage with the characters on a deeper, more personal level, as they confront the realities of waste, migration, and the human condition.

The Sacrifice of Cassamba Becker 

Conceived during the global coronavirus pandemic, The Sacrifice of Cassamba Becker is a monologue written and performed by João Victor Toledo. The play, whose central character is Cassamba Becker, the grande dame of Brazilian theater that made a dump on some beach in Brazil her home, discusses urgent issues such as poverty, consumerism, global warming, and political crisis. The Sacrifice of Cassamba Becker  is at heart a political-marginal imagination that wants to rethink the present moment to envision something broader and sexier, in order to transform the garbage of the world into housing, sacrifice into freedom, and thus imagine a place where it is finally worth living.

 

Steppe

Steppe is a one-act play that tells an intergenerational story of an unexpected friendship against the backdrop of an ecological disaster. The story is inspired by the effects of war in Ukraine on the Chalk Flora Nature Reserve and the unexpected revelations that appear in places of purgatory. In a lobby of an administrative government office, partially under reconstruction, two people wait. Dmytro is a 50-year-old environmentalist who has been taking care of Kreidova Flora nature reserve in Ukraine before the war forced him to leave. Daryna is an economics student who is here to obtain her indefinite stay. Over the course of 3 brief visits to the government center, they strike an unexpected friendship.

About the Festival

Theme
The theme of GFTF 2023 is Green Theater where we seek to explore different channels of pursuing sustainable theater practice. 

 

Here are some keywords to think about: green, sustainability, biodiversity, environmental crisis, wildlife conservation, ecology, global warming, the future generation, co-exist, environmental policy, carbon neutral, environmentally responsible, organic, environmentally sound. 

 

Mission

The mission of Global Forms Theater Festival is to create opportunities, visibility, and community for international and immigrant artists. This group of artists is drastically underrepresented and underserved in our industry.


All of the artists involved in GFTF are paid, and the festival does not ask for any form of payment for participation. The festival is funded solely through sponsorships, grants and donations contributed by government agencies, foundations, organizations, and individuals.

Global Forms Theater Festival is made possible by the Ford Foundation and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.To join them in supporting our immigrant artists, you can donate at the link below.

home banners (1).png

Presentation

Global Stage (In Person Workshop Presentations)

  • Each workshop presentation will have 2 weeks of rehearsals, and up to 3 public presentations between Thursday through Sunday.

  • Rattlestick will provide rehearsal space, with time slots to be agreed upon by each project.

  • Workshop presentations will take place at Rattlestick Theater, with show times to be agreed upon by all projects. 

  • Rattlestick will create a budget for each project, based on its needs and our resources. Specific contract to be updated at a later date. The budget will be discussed with the finalist teams before the final selection is confirmed. 

  • Each workshop production has to be within a duration of 45 to 90 minutes.

Global Learn (Knowledge-Sharing Sessions)

  • Global Learn takes place either via Zoom or in person at Rattlestick Theater (pending theater availability).

  • The topic of the sessions should be related to the festival theme Green Theater

  • Each session will last 60 to 90 minutes in total.

  • The session can be led by one or two artists.

  • Submit your idea/s via the GFTF 2023 application form. 

 

Global Share (virtual)​

  • Share your food culture in NYC, implementing green practices, via a 1-minute video. 

  • All selected videos will be featured on Rattlestick social media channels. 

  • For example, if you’re Brazilian, take us to a Brazilian restaurant in NYC that you love! The only catch is that we ask you to implement green practices. I.E. if you’re getting groceries to cook, bring a reusable bag; if you’re getting a beverage, use a tumbler; if you’re getting takeout, bring your own reusable containers; if you have biodegradable waste, please compost. Get creative! 

  • Here is a playlist of past videos

 

 

 

 

More information to come, follow @rattlestickny on IG for the latest updates! 

Production Team

Lead Producer - Yue Liu

Line Producers - Jody Doo, Danilo Gambini, Salma S. Zohdi. 

bottom of page