Eight Days A Week: 24 hour madness!

This past weekend the Drama Club at St. Mike's hosted the 24-hour play festival! This was a crazy 24 hours for me, one of three people running the whole thing, because I stayed up all night with the writers (they finished around 4!) and organized some fun activities for them to stay alert and have fun, like a scavenger hunt for a prop they then had to incorporate, and a relaxation/meditation/movement excersize. Rachel Strashnick (who took all the pics!) and Matt Fitzgerald and I tried to make sure everything ran smoothly.

the writers took a break around midnight, and again at 2!

Then the directors came in at 7 to cast their shows and read it over, and the actors in at 8 to start rehearsal! We had two groups this year, smaller than usual, but still lots of fun. Each play was a comedy about 10 minutes long.

Chris's group had a play about college kids in relationships, including a big plush fish and a Shakespeare-wannabe.

Marla's group had a play about a girl who dreams she's part of her favorite TV shows and YouTube clips!

We had a scavenger hunt for the casts and directors as well, and though we tried to organize the afternoon well to get everyone's faish share onstage it didn't work out very well. We had Chris's cast onstage first, but had to ask them to leave while we sorted out curtain placement for a while. Then while his cast was onstage, Marla's group had nothing to do...and vice versa! We should have planned that better, and hopefully next year when it is planned better the attitudes will be a little better during the day :) it helps when people plan ahead and don't go out to party the night before they know they will be in the theater all day!

The performance itself went really well! There was a pretty good turnout, as usual for this event, since it's free, it's short, and it's always funny. The first group had some unfortunate glass breaking onstage, which was actually pretty entertaining since no one got hurt and it happened to Ellen twice within the skit! Both plays were enjoyed by the audience, though the TV show references and YouTube clips of the first play were more appreciated by the college level audience.

After the show, we gave out Red Bull awards in front of the audience- "The Pen is Mighty" award to the strongest writer group; the "I'll Make a Man Out of You" award to the director who stepped it up the most; the "Most Outrageous Character" award to the actor who played up their part the best; and the "Most Enthusiastic Participant" award to, well, the most dedicated and enthusiast person involved! Strike was a quick affair and we gathered everyone afterwards for paper plate awards- besides the Red Bull awards, Rachel and I stayed awake and sane making everyone a paper plate award. It was a nice end to the day.