Between the fall musical and the spring play, The 24 Hour Play Festival takes place over the span of a week. Students form small groups to put together a play while abiding to certain criteria within twenty-four hours.
“I really liked it because I got to lead others and got to collaborate with those around me,” Kaitlyn Werner, 11, said.” I made sure that everyone in my group felt like they could speak up and say anything that they wanted.”
Creative teams are given a prompt, then come in with potential ideas and see all the actors auditions. While the actors are auditioning, the creative teams, (director, stage manager and playwright), are able to tell the actors to do certain things like being more over dramatic, dancing or singing to see if they are a good fit for their plays. Then, the three creative teams meet and argue for their actors they want for their plays. Once they get their actors, the rehearsing starts. The creative teams also have certain criteria their plays need to meet like the time being between 10 and 20 minutes, acting choices, quality of script, blocking, use of the two given props and prop limitations and the startling line: “Who goes there” in order to be eligible to compete and win.
”It taught us time management,” Faith Leonard, 11, said.” It brought together a lot of teamwork.”
The 24 Hour Play Festival is very different from a normal school production. Not only because of the fact that it obviously is written, rehearsed and performed within twenty-four hours, while a regular musical or play takes two months, but the fact that it is more accessible and more of a welcoming intro to students to try out theater. It is a fun quick transition into the school play in the spring.
“I think with any musical, or play or whatever it is, there is going to be some stress that comes with it, just because it is a time limit,” Georgia Dean, 12, said. “But I think this was less stressful because it’s student-led, and you’re kind of doing this with your friends.”
The three plays written and performed were “My Dear Charlotte”, “Cassandra’s Angels” and “Time Will Always Lead You Home”. “My Dear Charlotte”, which won The 24 Hour Play Festival, was a story written by Jackson Vennemann, 9, and directed by Landon Martin, 11, about a family dealing with the recent suicide of their father when in the end a box belonging to the father is opened and it sparks new hope in the family.
“Overall it was a really fun experience,” Jackson Vennemann, 9, said,” I enjoyed doing it and I’m definitely going to do it again next year.”
“Cassandra’s Angels” was written by Bobby Lloyd, 12, and directed by Natalie Hoffmann, 12. It is a story about a crazy dance teacher named Cassandra who runs a dance company. There are two dancers, one who’s been dancing for a while, and one who is new. They perform a dance which goes horribly wrong and they end up losing the competition.
“Time Will Always Lead You Home” was written by Evan Pattin, 10, and directed by Kaitlyn Werner, 11. It is a story about a family with a grandma who owns a pawn shop and her grandson works at the shop. One day a customer comes in and as the story progresses it is revealed that the customer is the long lost brother of the grandson. It is a story about family, love and coming together.
“I’m really excited to do it next year because it was a lot of fun this year,” Andrew Graham, 10, said.
The 24 Hour Play Festival is actually fairly new to Eureka High School. Previously, before covid, there were “one acts” that were prewritten and performed by students. These “one acts” usually took a month-long commitment because of the plays being longer than plays in the 24 Hour Play Festival. This change from One Acts to the 24 Hour Play Festival was made to help seniors, who were nearing graduation, still be able to participate without the stress of the long rehearsal hours. This switch up has allowed for this tradition to carry on and for all students to participate stress free.
“I think the 24 Hour Play Festival is a great way to get started with theater,” Dean said.
