Fifth year of 24 hour play challenge showcases students’ creativity
Juniors Ella Goette and Sandy Liu and freshman Mason rehearse for the play two hours prior to performing in front of a live audience. These actors have run through the play many times. They continue to work hard and stay determined to put on a good show.
October 18, 2019
Junior Avery Mitchell said she directed a show that included VSCO girls, as well as directing a parody of the movie “Tall Girl” on Netflix, showing that students included pop culture references into their performances.
This is the fifth year the theatre department has put on plays created in 24 hours. Every year, each play has to contain set criteria that theatre director, Grif Sadow, gives the prior night in order to see what students can create out of it. Each year the students blow him away with witty performances.
After watching students go through the challenge of creating a play, Sadow believes, “the play gives people an opportunity to actually do things that they don’t normally do in theater.”
These 15 minute plays are created in 24 hours. There are three jobs to sign up for: acting, writing and directing. Actors are chosen based on specific skills directors look for when auditioning. Writers have to create a 15 minute play, including the criteria Sadow gives them, and turn it in before midnight the day prior. Directors have to block and help the technicians set up their play prior to performing in front of an audience at 7 p.m.
“In 24 hours [the play] goes from being written to being put on in front of an audience,” Sadow said.
“Every play needs to have a packet of goldfish,” Sadow explained the criteria set for the writers.
Auditions are judged on specific talents actors portray. Therefore students who choose actors for the plays describe the auditions as being oddly specific and based on short situations.
“It’s a lot of specific audition stuff like who can do a British accent and stuff like that,” Mitchell said.
“You’ll be like, pretend you’re late for work, go run around the room or something, you just make them do and that’s how you cast your members,” sophomore Krister Kahl added.
Mitchell mentioned students in the 24 hour play challenge also participated in other plays, making it difficult to compromise and work together.
“For me as a director, it was incredibly stressful, because I mean, all my actors were in at least four to seven of the other shows so it is hard to get a schedule that can go around that and just being able to get everybody together for the show. — Avery Mitchell
“For me, as a director, it was incredibly stressful, because I mean, all my actors were in at least four to seven of the other shows so it is hard to get a schedule that can go around that and just being able to get everybody together for the show,” Mitchell said.
Sadow praised the work the students put into their plays. In comparison, the students who participated in the plays also believed that their team put a substantial amount of effort into their plays and made the challenge fun.
“I think they’re brave, I think they’re courageous and I’m impressed that they’re willing to try new things and take on a challenge,” Sadow said.
“This provides a lot of great actors with experiences and I’m really proud of my cast and what they turned the show into,” Mitchell said about her experience with the 24 hour play.
“People should definitely come see the 24 hour shows because it’s completely student based and adults do not do a lot of work,” Mitchell said.
Anthony Toscano • Nov 14, 2019 at 9:38 am
I love how it connect with the readers. Good use of vocabulary.
Elizabeth Shepperd • Nov 13, 2019 at 9:57 pm
I can tell a lot of good research and knowledge went into writing this story. It was very interesting, especially because i have never heard of anything like this before, and i really enjoyed gaining more knowledge on our school events.
Austin Fierro • Nov 12, 2019 at 9:24 am
This was a good informative article about the 24 hour play. I would add a quote from a writer, to get a picture of the difficulty the play poses to all three ‘jobs’. Overall, a great article!
William Raymond • Nov 11, 2019 at 8:26 pm
1. Don’t overpack your image description.
2. Remember if you speak of a teacher to cite their job title.
3. It would be nice to hear from the writers perspective.
Alex Steil • Nov 4, 2019 at 5:32 pm
For someone who has heard of the play festival every year, it was nice to get an insight into really what is going on during the whole process. The quotes were really interesting and gravitated towards the style of story and people that you interviewed. My only critique would be that it would have been nice to hear from a writers perspective what it is like to write a whole play.
Elaina Mankowski • Nov 3, 2019 at 7:42 pm
I liked the approach you brought to the article. I felt it was informative to the event, but also included some fun within the writing which I felt added to the overall feel of the event. I think there could’ve been a slightly different introduction to the article that gave more context to the current intro. Overall though, I really enjoyed it!