The Christopher Thomasson Memorial Fellowship

Gi60 International One Minute Theatre Festival and The Tank NYC have founded the Christopher Thomasson Memorial Fellowship in support of emerging theater artists. To celebrate Christopher's warm, collaborative spirit and multi-disciplinary theatrical artistry, the fellowship will support the work of an early career director and/or sound/video designer to create new work at The Tank. Each season, one or more fellows will be selected to receive an artist fee they would not otherwise receive. It is our hope that we may preserve a bit of Christopher's legacy and inspire collaboration in his honor.

Christopher arrived in NYC from Kentucky, fell in love with New York, and treasured receiving his MFA in directing from Brooklyn College, while working with many arts organizations including Boomerang Theatre, Gi60 International, and Santaland at Macy’s (as Production Manager he got employment for MANY young artists!). He directed and recorded podcasts and radio plays, and from 2007-2021 was manager and editor for Gi60’s YouTube Channel. A fierce advocate for education and the role of nature in the lives of children, he served as director of Trail Blazers Camp where they recently named their theater in Christopher’s memory. He loved travel, playing his guitar, but most of all loved making a difference in people’s lives. The fellowship will provide financial support to one or more emerging artists and it's our hope that we may preserve a bit of Christopher's legacy and inspire collaboration in his honor.

The first recipient of The Christopher Thomasson Memorial Fellowship is Fiamma Piacentini.

Fiamma Piacentini is a New York City based Actor, Movement Artist, Director, and Photographer from Mexico City, Mexico. Her most recent theater projects were Christine Stoddard's Mi Abuela Queen of Nightmares at the Gene Frankel Theater, where she played the role of Abuela and also served as movement director, and My Favorite Sex Toy, which she directed for the Broadway Comedy Club and Greenwich Village Comedy Club. She also directed, produced, and performed in las:sitas: a movement exploration of the divine feminine at the Fringe NYC Festival. Other NYC theater credits include The House of Bernarda Alba, By Wing, Hoof or Foot, Macbeth, Miss Witherspoon, Through the Looking Glass, Andromache, and The Insanity of Mary Girard. She has also worked on various independent film projects.

The Mike Flanagan Directing Fellowship

Gi60 International One Minute Theatre Festival and The Tank NYC have collaborated to create the Mike Flanagan Directing Fellowship in his honor, which will provide financial support for one or more early career directors to create work at The Tank. Mike Flanagan was a brilliant and joyous director, author and teacher, and devastatingly funny human being who was an Associate Director of Gi60 since 2007, directing for Gi60 US and later launching Gi60 Houston with his treasured students and colleagues at Houston Community College.  An innovative educator, he co-authored All the Classroom’s a Stage: Applying Theater Principles to Teaching Techniques in 2021, outlining his methods of bringing any subject to life through the power of theater and storytelling. However, his greatest gifts were as a director; and his passion and talents as a director were only outweighed by the humor and kindness that he brought to every creative endeavor. To play with Mike on any project was to know what true connection, collaboration and friendship was. Gifted with an incredible combination of deep smarts, lightning-fast wit, and a giant and playful spirit that ranged from goofy to purely joyous, he dove into a one minute play as deeply as he would a Shakespeare. Only weeks before he passed away, he directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream.