24 Hour Theater Project

The 24 Hour Theater Project is something that has been growing in popularity in recent years, but it was Lou Wallace who envisioned bringing the concept to our campus. Of course, it was nearly two years ago that he mentioned it in a theater department meeting. In the two years since, limitations in time and student interest seemed as if it had stopped the idea in its tracks. It was not until this past December that it was given new life.

Jack Matuszewski had always liked the idea, but finally decided to do something about it. He first went to the executive board of the Student Theatrical Guild of Excellence for direction, where he was told to make it happen. From there, a signup sheet was posted and very soon had generated twenty to thirty people interested in participating.

From there they began writing, casting, rehearsing… right? Not exactly. The unique characteristic of a 24 Hour Theater Project is that everything - from the plot idea to the final outcome - is actually done in 24 uninterrupted hours. The only thing Matuszewski knew as of Thursday afternoon was that the writing team would be provided with prompts from three people - Theatrical Arts Department director Dr. Michael Mauldin, Technical Director Don McBride, and acting professor Holly Holsinger. These prompts were to be cohesive in some way, and were all to be implemented in the final product. The group received the prompts at 8:00 pm Friday night. After combining the three prompts, "In 24 hours, humanity will disappear," was the core idea given to the four groups of writers. Assisted by Mike Geither, the head of the writing department, and Michael Oatman, a CSU graduate, the four teams created basic plots, characters, and settings overnight. After a potluck breakfast, the actors began rehearsing at 8:00 am Saturday.

At CSU's Factory Theater, a large crowd filed in as the doors were opened at about 7:50 pm Saturday night. What followed was brilliant. After a brief introduction by producer Charles Hargrave, the audience met three survivors of World War III in "Star-spangled," written by Katie Wallace and directed by Justin Steck. An argument between self-centered America and China, who accused her of being a bully, was broken up by Haiti, who tried to convey to them both how lucky they were just to be alive. After China and Haiti die in their sleep, America commits suicide never having had the chance to apologize.

"Human Theatrics," written by Tim Collingwood and directed by Matuszewski featured a look at the complicated relationship between a director, her assistant, and an auditioning actress, played by Brittany Gaul, whose depiction of her character was my favorite part of the piece.

The third piece showed a hero and a villain who must work together to save to earth and the life in it that they both apparently care for so much. In "The Bad Guy," written and directed by Eric Perusek and Isaiah Isaac, however, even the intercession of an angel is not enough to make these two archetypes work together peacefully.

In my opinion, "Word" was the perfect ending to a very fascinating but also very dark group of pieces. Written and directed by Amy Schwabauer and John Paul Soto, it utilized the audience as the group of people to whom an angel, played by Burnetta Hood-Fisher, was directly speaking. The world had ended, and lucky for those of us in the audience, we were in heaven. The angel was simply there to explain just what had happened. She drew us into a flashback depicting how she had tried to save our species just hours before. All she had to do was cause one human to say "I love you." But as she soon found, humans' minds are far too crowded with Beyonce and Lil' John to have any space left over for any meaningful communication.

The project turned out very well, especially when one considers the time frame in which it was completed. It also shows that students on our campus have a lot of important subjects on their minds, and it would do us all good to listen to what they have to say. At this point in time, it is not yet too late for us all to learn to work together and communicate more efficiently.