Missed the show? Catch-up with some participant reflections and recap footage,
multimedia by Sophia Asmuth
Putting on a play from start to finish requires more than year of writing and editing, a few weeks of casting and a couple of months of practice and technical rehearsals. But every year, Elon University’s Department of Performing Arts students manage to write, direct and perform six different plays in the course of 24 hours.
This year’s “24 Hour Plays” held Sept. 12, was led by senior Hunter McCormick, president of Elon’s Alpha Psi Omega, the National Theatre Honor Society. Since classes began, she has been collaborating with the board — vice president and junior Ferginho Philippe-Auguste, secretary and junior Douglas Del Pizzo and treasurer and senior Allison Pichowicz — to put the event together.
“It’s something I’m super passionate about,” McCormick said. “I’ve always been super involved in it, and I knew I wanted to be in charge of it. This is the No. 1 way of getting involved with theater if you’re interested in it. It’s a quick way to perform for a short time commitment.”
According to McCormick, “24 Hour Plays” are a yearly tradition that has always been on the department’s calendar. This year, there were six writing teams, six directors and 40 actors — the biggest group of performers yet.
Together they created six 10-minute-long plays, making the show just over an hour long with transitions.
“24 Hour Plays” extends beyond the Department of Preforming Arts. Sophomore Bob Minton, a human services major, acted in one of the plays.
“Everyone’s really good,” he said. “It’s nice that I’m not an acting major but they still gave me a part where I can have fun. It’s phenomenal that this has happened in the past 24 hours.”
Working under pressure
The schedule for “24 Hour Plays” is tight. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, everyone meets briefly to go over the schedule, and writers and directors can see the actors they are working with. When 8 p.m. comes, everyone leaves except the writers, who have until 6 a.m. to finish their script.
“They’re always funny,” McCormick said. “The way it works is when we get the writers in the room they pick a genre out of a hat. They have no idea what they’re writing about. That’s kind of the challenge of it.”
Another challenge is that one specific line must be repeated in every skit, which doesn’t always work out well. This year’s line — “That was not a very nice way to pull me closer” — was easier to include than previous years.
“We had it in there during the first scene,” said writer and senior Jillian Hannah. “The line was so generic we could put it anywhere.”
This was Hannah’s second year writing for “24 Hour Plays,” making her more prepared for the deadline. Collaborating with senior Rebecca Frohlinger, they hashed out ideas that worked with the genre of mystery and a cast of mostly boys until one stuck — a frat party — and finished their play by midnight.
As soon as the writing process is over, the board prints the script and the directors come in. They are then assigned their writers, allowed to read the plays and go through a quick casting by choosing actors by their headshots.
At 7:30 a.m., the actors go into separate rehearsal rooms and have the rest of the day to rehearse. During this time, the board is also running around gathering props and making sure everyone’s plays are appropriate.
Then, the show is presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Yeager Recital Hall — ready or not.
“I have never seen a 24 hour play where it has been unsuccessful,” McCormick said. “I think it really teaches students about work ethic and how to accomplish things thoroughly and specifically, but quickly as well. ”
24 hours of changes
For a less stressful 24 hours, the board has made a big change by extending the tech time from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. with 30-minute slots, instead of 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with only 20-minute slots. Although it’s more time consuming for the board, those 10 minutes allow for each skit to completely work out their kinks.
“People would run over and people would get nervous, but it always works out,” McCormick said. “Hopefully it’ll calm some tempers.”
Another major difference this year is that the department is now a licensed college to do “24 Hour Plays” through the “The 24 Hour Company,” a New York based theater company specializing in 24-hour plays and musicals.
Over the summer, Mark Armstrong, head of the company, reached out to Fred Rubeck, chair of the Department of Preforming Arts, and wanted recognize the department for creating “The 24 Hour Plays” each year.
As a licensed college, the department has to use the “24 Hour Company” logo, link to their website and receive shout-outs from the company on Facebook and Twitter for their performance. Additionally, every summer the company hosts a national festival in New York, and the department can apply to send two people to perform in the festival.
“Obviously it’s not guaranteed, but it’s super exciting,” McCormick said. “We’re getting known for doing this.”
Though McCormick said some of the plays end up being a bit “cheesy,” “24 Hour Plays” gives writers the opportunity to dip their toes into play writing and see how people are going to respond. Often times, writers will expand their 10-minute play into a full-length one.
Directors also have an opportunity to test the waters by managing under a tight time constraint. Freshman Hayden Palmer decided to participate as a director because he wanted to see if this was the path for him.
“It has gone fantastic,” Palmer said. “I have actors that are so smart and are great on stage. Everything flowed so well, it’s been a smooth process.”
Palmer also said his play — a comedy mystery — was easy to work with because it wasn’t binding and allowed the actors to add and have fun with it.
McCormick said “24 Hour Plays” is one of the most popular events of the year and there is always a sold-out house. This year, there was so much overflow they live-streamed the event in the Isabella Cannon room in Moseley.
“We discussed putting on two shows but decided against it because it’s magical to have that one show, and doing it twice would lose its magic a bit,” McCormick said. “The audience is always amazed. It’s like, ‘Wow, how did that even happen?’”