The Chicago One-Minute Play Festival will tick away at Victory Gardens

Taking short form to the extreme, 45 or so playwrights will pen self-contained scenes of 60 seconds or less for the Chicago One-Minute Play Festival, a two-night event at Victory Gardens Theater. Created by director Dominic D'Andrea, the One-Minute Play Festival has been an annual event in New York since 2007; other iterations have been produced in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Jersey. D'Andrea describes the concept's mission as "to serve as a playwright-focused community event, bringing artists and community together to promote the spirit of radical inclusion and invite artists to dialogue about an emerging form of theatre."

To date, the fest has presented works by 185 playwrights; currently announced for the Chicago dates are Gloria Bond Clunie, Kristoffer Diaz, Laura Jacqmin, Joel Drake Johnson and Tanya Saracho. The Chicago One-Minute Play Festival (Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, May 15 and 16, 7:30pm, $15) benefits Victory Gardens's Fresh Squeezed series.