Kennesaw State’s Theatre and Performance Studies program put on a unique performance, the 24-Hour Play Festival, Saturday, Aug. 25.
The performance consisted of five small plays, each one containing around three to eight actors. Each play was written and produced entirely by Theatre and Performance Studies students less than 24 hours before they were performed.
“The event is a spectacular opportunity for our students to create art and tell new stories in an exciting environment,” said Amanda Morgan, coordinator of the festival. “They come together at 6 p.m. on a Friday and by 8 p.m. the next night, they have pieces of theatre to present to the public, rehearsed and all.”
On the day before the performance, all students involved met for a three-hour play-and-devising period. Here, the students played improvisational games and decided on what they wished for the theme to be. The director and writer teams were then instructed to draw names from a hat to assemble their casts. When the meeting was over, the writers left to write their new stories overnight.
Morgan described the writing process as “quite grueling, but also very fun.”
Writers were encouraged to equally distribute lines and incorporate more physical storytelling to cut-down on the number of lines the actor had to memorize.
Everyone then met back up at 8 a.m. the next day where writers, directors, actors and stage managers worked together right up to show time to create the performances. Students would take breaks in between rehearsal to search for props and costume pieces in their homes and local thrift stores.
Students who participated in the festival were seen as gaining the ability to efficiently collaborate under immense pressure.
“Their creative juices are flowing fast and they learn how to make decisions quickly while respecting each other and making things work together,” Morgan said
The 24-Hour Play Festival has been going on for many years now According to Morgan, “It was created in the spirit of our departmental mission to foster scholar-artists and artists who create Theatre and new work. The devising nature of it is one of the many exciting things we do”
Students who are interested in getting involved with the Theatre and Performance Studies program or wish to know more about their upcoming season can visit their main office in the Wilson Building or their website.
