Rome wasn't built in a day, but 24-Hour Theatre will be!
Yes, in just 24 hours, four one-act plays will be written, staged, and then performed at the Mary D. Fisher Theater on Saturday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m.
We will have an opportunity to enjoy a highlight of the cultural scene in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and many other cities — 24-hour Theatre — right here in Sedona!
Small teams of Sedona's most talented writers, directors, actors, artists, and songwriters will collaborate to create and perform four brand new plays, starting from scratch, within just one day.
The program's mission is to be an exciting community building, live theater experience and a fund-raising benefit for the OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) Scholarship fund, allowing people of all ages to share learning and community experiences who couldn't otherwise afford them.
The actors will gather on Friday night to audition, giving the playwrights and directors a chance to meet their casts and use them as guide for creating the plays.
While the actors and directors go home for some sleep, the playwrights will swing into action. Each of them will use the late night hours to write a ten-minute play. Topics may range from the slapstick and silly to the surprisingly thoughtful and moving.
In the morning, the directors will come back to pick up the scripts they will be bringing to life by the end of that day. Soon after, the directors will meet with the actors for the first read-through of a play none of them has ever seen before (because it's hot off the printer).
Joining each performing group will be a songwriter, who has the rest of the day to compose an original song that he or she will perform before the play or that will be incorporated within the play.
These artists will spend the remainder of the day rehearsing, while set painters collaborate to paint a backdrop for each play, a visual background for the setting in which the dramatic action takes place.
Throughout the day a team of filmmakers will shoot bits and pieces of the activities at every stage of the production. Just before show time, they will edit those clips into a coherent sequence and then show the film to the audience, so viewers can get a glimpse of how the four new plays they have just seen were put together.
On Saturday evening all of these collaborators will take a breath and share a meal, while the audience assembles at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre for this extraordinary event. Then the curtain will open, and the show will go on, ending about an hour later, and followed by a viewing of the film and a Q&A with the writers, actors, directors, artists, and songwriters.
Coordinating this entire venture is a Sedona newcomer, Tammie McKenzie, Director of Theatre at Malone University in Ohio, where she has produced wildly popular 24-Hour Theatre projects annually for over 10 years.