One student's 24 hours as a Witness thespian
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.
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.
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