Hi, we are doing our 3rd 24 Hour Play Festival this year. One of the primary reasons I opted for this is because our state standards dictate that students in higher level courses complete playwriting and directing projects. I've always preferred having them work on something like a one act that they can see come to life on stage in front of an audience as opposed to just scenes in class. So, our playwrights and directors are determined by who is in the upper level theatre courses and what they need to complete. Typically I have pairs work together to write and direct- this year we're going to try and split that up. We have sign ups for actors and technicians. The process looks a bit like this:
A month leading up to the event: lessons in class on direction and playwriting, promotion throughout the school to recruit performers and technicians
A Week before: Sign ups for Performers and Technicians, students practice playwriting in class with the kind of prompts they'd get for 24 Hour Play Project
3 Days before: I sit down and come up with playwriting criteria/ challenges, I also categorize the sign ups by "novice", "intermediate", "experienced", and "pro"- in terms of their experience/ skills. I then divide these among the directing/ writing pairs. Sometimes I do this equally and everyone has the same size cast and crew, other times I create small casts, medium casts, and large casts. The goal, either way is to make sure everyone has the same levels of experience to deal with. This also prevents boyfriends and girlfriends or best friends from being lumped together. We've also discussed and may shift to this- letting them know in advance who their casts will be and at the meeting the day before they get to meet with their casts and each cast member brings one prop that must be used in the show.
A Day before: A meeting is held with all the students who signed up- lead by the writers and directors. So they know what time to show up, what will happen, and what is expected of them.
Day of: All writer/ director pairs stay after school (A Friday) and get to pull their prompts and cast from a hat. They can trade with another group once, and can get rid of one of their prompts if they pull a wild card. The prompts they have to pull from are: Location/ Environment (sometimes extremely specific, sometimes vague. Example: 1950s Soda Shop vs. A Bench), Character Relationship (again sometimes specific, sometimes not. Some examples we've had: Sisters, a family, long-lost twins, love, hate), Condition/ Challenge (something like: must include rain, or magic, or set can only be created with chairs, must use flashlights, etc), Cast (when they receive it, it looks like "2 male experienced, 1 female pro, 2 female intermediate, 1 male novice"- meaning they don't know who they got, just their gender and their level of experience. I've also assigned people things like "1 neutral intermediate" meaning I know the person is flexible and will play either gender. The last option is Wild Card- if they select this they can either keep all 4 parameters or elect to put one back. These can be totally random:="pink flamingo", "rollerskating", "no one can physically touch one another", etc.
Once they have all of this they find out who their tech will be and which tech is designated their stage manager. This is so as they write if they find they need something weird (like, a pink flamingo related item) they can contact the SM to see what's possible for them to acquire. This will invariably influence their writing.
As a group they typically set their own deadlines with my approval. Here's an example from last year:
Dinner time, skeleton of a plot due.
Meet together for dinner and we will discuss with each other (this also includes English Dept. people I can convince to come and help) what we have planned and get feedback.
9:30PM- rough draft due. Have someone else read it for plot holes or rushed areas, giving feedback.
Then they essentially have until 5AM to get a complete script done.
Once their script is completed I give them the names of their actors. At this point they typically contact them in a frenzy of anxiety to make sure they are coming and to ask them to bring any specifics that they might need.They normally try to make time to sleep at some point. Some of them do this well, others don't. I highly recommend creating a "silent dark zone" with air mattresses and requiring them to use this space for sleeping only.
5AM - 6:30AM Print Scripts
6:30AM Stage Managers arrive
7AM Crews Arrive
7:30AM Casts Arrive
7:30 AM - 8AM Breakfast/ General Meeting with All
8AM- 12 Rehearsals (usually they get 3 sit down read throughs done, character analysis, and one or two on their feet rehearsals)
12-12:30 Lunch
12:30-4:30: Rehearsals (blocking, polishing, full costume, etc.)
4:30-6:30 Rotation of Dinner- Tech Rehearsals- Dress Rehearsals for all groups
7PM House Opens
7:30 PM- Shows
9PM- Talkback
10PM- Go home!
We Strike on the monday after school time.
Let me know if you have any questions.
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Victoria Kesling Councill
Chapter Director - VA EdTA/ Virginia Thespians
Theatre Director- Fine & Performing Arts Department NKHS
Artistic Director - NKHS Trojan Theatre
Artistic Director - Kent England Exchange Production
Virginia Commonwealth University BFA Theatre Education, BFA Art Education '08
University of Houston - MA in Theatre Candidate '16
"Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art." - Konstantin Stanislavski
Original Message:
Sent: 08-05-2016 08:56
From: Valerie Farschman
Subject: Interested in doing a 24 Hour Play Project, would like some info!
My theatre students and I are very interested in attempting a 24 Hour Play, but have not even attended one. Is there anyone who has done these, and can give me some good advice and tips? I have no idea how to set this up, organize it, run it, promote it, etc.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Can email me at:
<maskemail>valerie_farschman@...</maskemail>
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Valerie Farschman
Drama Director
Amherst OH
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