The community is probably familiar with the fall and spring productions the theater department puts on each year, but they also stage an event to showcase more talents and push student thespians to further their involvement in theater. Students with a passion for writing, acting, and directing plays were able to come together over the course of one day for the fifth annual 24 Hour Theater.
On Friday January 20, six students wrote their own original scripts. They spent the night at the school and worked to create short one act plays, where groups of five to seven actors and a designated director prepared them for an audience, all within 24 hours.
The different plays were titled “The Not-So Friendly Squad” by Olivia Blumke, “Roommates, Ghosts and Ghostly Roommates” by Carolina Segovia, “Super Antics” by Ariana Vannieuwenhoven, “The Funeral with The Tunes” by Brooklyn DeVries, “Ride to Which Floor?” by Ella Price and “We Put the U in….Appendix?” by Kayden Bravata.
Nancy Hoffman is the organizer of 24 Hour Theatre and loves running it yearly because it is student driven and gives individuals an opportunity to be involved in theater, whether it’s acting on stage, writing a script or directing the production. This event took a lot of planning and forced students to deal with obstacles while under a deadline.
“For the writers, they are under a time crunch and have to go with their gut without the benefit of much revision. For the directors and actors, they must make hard and fast decisions and use incredible problem solving skills to bring the play to life in 12 hours,” Hoffman said. “If a scene or line isn’t working or an actor is having trouble memorizing lines they have to figure out [how] to make it work. The stage crew is quickly creating sound cues, light cues, pulling props and making scene changes without the luxury of perfecting the transitions.”
After the first 12 hours were over, actors arrived at 7:00 Saturday morning and rehearsed for the next 12 hours to perform the plays.
“It’s scary [for the actors] to create something and share it with the public, especially when [they] don’t have the benefit of weeks of rehearsal and fine-tuning,” Hoffman said.
Senior Kayden Bravata was one of the writers for 24 Hour Theatre. He has been writing for the program since his freshman year and was pleased with how it turned out this year.
“My favorite part about 24 Hour Theater was probably working with the people,” Bravata said. “I’ve been doing it for a couple years so obviously new people will come in and out but it’s a lot of fun to collaborate with so many artistic and creative people.”
This year, the Performing Arts Center was packed with audience members to see the six original plays.
“You get to write something and then you get to watch that thing come to life before your eyes,” Bravata said. “People laughing at your [performance is] amazing. It is definitely something you can’t really explain because you have to feel what that feeling is.”
There was a high number of people partaking in 24 Hour Theater and Hoffman was glad to give people the experience.
“The main thing that stood out was the large number of students participating and the fact that we had six plays. We had about 60 students involved for the 24 hour event,” Hoffman said.
Junior Libby Cosby was one of the many actors involved. She acted in the play titled “The Not-So Friendly Squad.”
“24 Hour Theatre this year seemed a lot more like a collaborative effort to create one show rather than several separate shows,” Cosby said. “It felt very inclusive and intimate.”
Everyone involved was proud of this year’s 24 hour theater outcome. The short preparation, and hard work paid off.
“There are very few high schools that have an opportunity like this for its students,” Hoffman said. “When I first heard of the concept of 24 Hour Theater, I thought it was a rare opportunity to showcase students in a way that they never had experienced.”
