Open Wardrobes

Tonight I am participating as a playwright in a 24-hour play festival for Heritage Theater in Maplewood. This is my first time being a part of such an event, and I'm rather excited by it. The concept is that in a 24-hour period plays are written, rehearsed, and then performed. From scratch. After an initial meeting tonight at 7:30, we writers then have from 9 PM to 5 AM to write a 10-minute play using certain criteria (which we'll be given tonight), such as how many actors it needs to use. Then tomorrow morning the directors meet and decide who will direct what, then the actors join them and they all rehearse. At 7:30 PM tomorrow evening all of the plays will be performed. Crazy? Perhaps. Fun? You bet! Somehow I think having such a tight deadline will force us as writers to turn off the internal editor and just take an idea and run with it. I'm also guessing that come 1 AM almost anything will seem funny, so that should help as well.

So what will my play be about? Who knows! And that's the beauty of it. My hope is that it will at least contain a good kernel of an idea that I can later polish up into a nice 10-minute piece. So if you're in the neighborhood tomorrow night, stop by Heritage and see half a dozen world premieres. It's only $10, and they're doing it as a fundraiser.