Extreme Theater: 24-Hour Plays Test Student Endurance and Creativity

Students have one day to conceive and perform six short plays for live audience on Jan. 9

December 23, 2009 —Six directors, six playwrights, three producers, and 24 actors will gather at the Steinbach Theatre on the evening of Friday, Jan. 8, to undertake dramatic theater’s equivalent of extreme sport: the 24-Hour Plays.  The all-student company must conceive, write, rehearse and ultimately perform a series of six, ten-minute plays before a live audience in 24 hours.

The two high-octane shows will take place at 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., on Saturday, Jan. 9, in the Steinbach Theatre on the Phillips Academy campus.  Ticket information for the performances, which are open to the public, will be made available after Jan. 1.

Adhering to a method created by The 24-Hour Plays Company in New York City, which has licensed the theatrical concept to Phillips Academy for the past four years, the entire company of actors, writers, directors and producers will meet the night before the production for introductions. Each person must bring an item, which may be used as a prop. Then, the writers will choose which actors will be in their play, before sending everyone home for the night.

That evening the six playwrights will stay up overnight in the Steinbach Theatre, each writing a ten-minute play (roughly twelve pages) in under nine hours. At 6:30 the next morning, the directors will arrive and select a script, which cannot be changed or edited. Thirty minutes later, the actors will start memorizing their lines, which, according to the 24-Hour Plays method, must be recited (improvisation is discouraged). Throughout the day of the performance, each of the six groups will rotate to different rehearsal areas so that each play has an opportunity to rehearse in the Steinbach Theatre.
 
For more information about the 24-Hour Plays productions on Jan. 9, and to follow up on the students' fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants performances, please stay tuned…