Although I may be unofficially listed as a Theater Arts minor, having never participated in any shows on campus, I never really thought of myself as an "actor." In fact, my part in Witness Theater's 24-Hour Theater Experiment wasn't what I had originally intended. I attempted to sign up as a writer for the show, but since all writing slots were already filled, and because I had seen the show last year and thought it was basically just an awesome concept, I finally decided to put those acting skills from John Astin's classes to use.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the 24-Hour Theater Experiment, or Witness Theater in general, let's pause for a brief exposition. Witness Theater is an on-campus theater group comprised solely undergraduates. All their shows are written, directed and acted by Hopkins students. They generally put on one full-length play and a few one-act showcases per academic year.
Their 24-Hour Theater Experiment fits into these guidelines perfectly, except for one small twist: The showcase involves writing, casting, rehearsing and performing four one-act plays, all within 24 hours.
Late Friday night, after the Buttered Niblets' performance, a small group of writers, directors and actors met in Arellano Theater, props in hand, ready to get to work. The writers (working in pairs) selected props to work their scene around and headed off to write, the rest of the group heading off to sleep.
After a full night of sleepless playwriting, the writers submitted their work and the directors met at 8 a.m. sharp on Saturday to decide who got to direct which play. At 9 a.m. the actors were called in to read lines from each play, and by 10 a.m. the directors had cast their shows and we all split up to rehearse. Lines had to be memorized within hours. Each group was allotted only a few hours in Arellano to work on lighting and blocking. At 8 p.m. the show went up, and a couple hours later it was all over, 24 hours after it had begun.
While this may sound like an exhausting and strenuous process, being pressed for time somehow amped up the commitment in everyone involved, and what one might normally complain would take days if not weeks was accomplished within hours or even minutes. Fifteen minute shows were completely memorized within an hour or two. Blocking and characterization both spilled out seamlessly and effortlessly as everyone involved was forced to get to know the parts within the first read-through.
To give you an idea of what the shows are like, let me explain my experience. I personally was in Red Sox Nation and the Downfall of Society, written by Rob Kasten and Paxson Trautman. Mitch Frank was our director. In a nutshell, the play was a comedy about post-apocalyptic Pennsylvania where a girl (me) is trying out for an illegal Underground Powderpuff Penguin Football League.
As explained by the team captain (senior Julie Sihilling), the sport is illegal and underground due to the fact that Boston won all major sports titles for three consecutive years, angering God (a Phillies fan), bringing about the apocalypse and forcing a government ban on sports and sporting equipment. They use a penguin as a football because their way around the ban is to insert footballs up penguins' ... well, you get the picture.
As the two girls realize that the penguin-ball is in fact a bomb, and the locker room they're in is inescapable, the one-act spirals deeper and deeper into illogical absurdity. While this may sound a little crazy, the show was in fact very coherently put together, especially considering that the writers only had a night to write it and both are engineers. And who can find fault a play that includes the Soulja Boy dance and slimy spaghetti in a Ziploc bag?
The first show of the night was The Mountain, written by seniors Adar Eisenbruch and Sal Gentile. It was directed by junior Oleg Shik. In it, senior Chris Chuang played Samson, the overbearing husband, senior Amy Hellman played Guinevere, the fed-up princess housewife, senior Joe Micali played the prince she has an affair with, and Eisenbruch provided the voice for a talking deer head.
Carve came next, written by senior Dave Haldane and junior Laura Gordon, and directed by freshman Pierce Delahunt. In this one-act, freshman Rebecca McGivney plays the girlfriend bringing her boyfriend home for the first time on Easter. Things go awry when the boyfriend (freshman Mike Alfieri) reveals to her a strange tradition his family has: They carve jack-o-lanterns the night before Easter.
The Viking Age was written by juniors Sarah Addison and Erin Donohue. Charlotte Chen directed the actors in this comedy about misled teenagers and online dating. Junior Christen Cromwell played the teenage daughter and senior Jennifer Petsche played the mother. Senior Patrick Connell played the viking whom, naturally, the daughter had fallen head over heels for on http://www.dateaviking.com.
The greatest part of the experience, in my opinion, was not so much the getting to go on-stage after only about eight hours of rehearsal and make a complete fool of myself (although I definitely have no complaints about that either!) but rather that I was able to meet a group of near strangers and within seconds begin to interact with them and create something out of nothing. To me, that is the epitome of the entire college experience. I highly recommend getting involved with Witness Theater's 24-Hour Theater Experiment next year, be it through writing, directing, acting or lighting/sound. It's a great way to dabble in the theater without having to commit weeks and weeks to strenuous rehearsals.
In addition, obviously, I recommend everybody go see it as well. While even the people involved never know if each individual show will be good until the proverbial curtain is raised, it's guaranteed to be an interesting experience for all involved, be they backstage or in the audience. Plus, with four one-acts, at least one has to strike gold!
