It can take months to put on a play that’s already been written, rehearsed, produced, etc. but to put together a play in 24 hours seems almost impossible.
But for SUU senior Treyson Lyon, it’s not impossible, though. Lyon wrote an original play in four hours.
SUU’s student-run theatre company, 2nd Studio, gives students the opportunity to create their own plays in 24 hours once a semester.
They call it 24-Hour Theatre, and it was held earlier this year from Jan. 10-11.
The event gave those interested the opportunity to either participate as a playwright, director or actor. Each group contained one writer, director and several actors which resulted in about six groups.
“I was grateful I had the chance to participate, and it gives you the chance to [try things you haven’t before,]” Lyon said.
Each group received a different prompt that was created randomly from a word generator, but the one requirement for the play was to include a random phrase in some way, shape or form.
Lyon explained that his prompt was, “remember to disable compression,” and the phrase for this semester was “wizard fish.”
His play followed a grandmother who begins to hallucinate seeing her dead sister, who encourages her to “punish people who make her mad” and results in the grandmother kidnapping people.
The play ends with the grandmother being taken to a retirement home. Ironically, after this occurs, the grandson can suddenly see his grandmother’s dead sister, and the story starts all over again.
Lyon wrote the 15 minute play in about four hours, and then handed the script over to the director who practiced it the following day with the actors.
This was followed by a 15 minute technical rehearsal, and then all of the groups performed their plays that night. The event was free and open to the public.
For Lyon, who has an appreciation for theater but hasn’t pursued it in college, it was the perfect opportunity to get back into it.
“I didn’t know a lot of other people involved, but I got to meet new people. It gave me the chance to do something more theater related that I hadn’t done in awhile, and it was a cool project.”
For those that participated, they got to see something being performed that hadn’t existed 24 hours ago, and for Lyon, that was the best part.
For more information on 2nd Studio and to find out when the next 24-Hour Theatre event will be held, click here.
Story by: Elizabeth Armstrong
accent@suunews.net
Photos by: Treyson Lyon
