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24-Hour Theatre Challenge 2009

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Locks Playhouse

Love in the Time of Vampires

5 writers - 5 directors - 20 actors
all randomly matched on the day

The writers had just 12 hours to write a short play.

At 8am, the finished play was handed over to the directors and actors, who had 12 hours from read-through to performance at 8pm Saturday

For F*cks Sake, It's Your Turn

A Fresh Idea

Get It

For F*cks Sake, It’s Your Turn
Writer: Jo Holstead
Director: Carl Drake
Cast:
Natalie Blighs
Bruce Coventry
Nicola Turner
Karen Soulje

Locks Playhouse
Writer: by Jonathan Riley
Director: Sofia Enholmer
Cast:
Patricia Hollran
Mark Towl
Sarah Bain
James Crompton

Get It
Writer: Jay Williams
Director: James Bell
Cast:
Malcolm Dale
Iain Kenderdine
Rochelle Cowie
Runfeng Lin

A Fresh Idea
Writer: Meg Freeman
Director: Vikki Cottingham
Cast:
CJ Shelford
Annie Whitley
Darren Waugh
Felix Schafer

Love In The Time Of Vampires
Writer: Pachali Brewster
Director: Louise Tu'u
Cast:
Duncan Milne
Karen Kohv
Jacqui-may Allison
John Way

Creative chaos at its finest.

The Challenge? Five new plays? The Answer? All in a day's work…literally!

Oct 10th 2009 saw the second annual 24hr Theatre Challenge take the stage at the Titirangi Theatre. The unique concept combined talented writers, directors, and actors in 24hrs of total creative expression.

Starting 7pm Fri 9th,a whirlwind of activity engulfed the theatre. An amazing mixture of nerves, excitement, and anticipation for what the writers were going to come up with was unleashed.

What makes the challenge so special? I believe it’s the fact that everyone is working towards one goal. There's no time for ego, no time for anyone to worry about anything other than putting the show together. Writing and putting on a play generally takes as long as the writer feels they need - months, often years. The process of finding the right director, casting and bringing together the creative team can take just as long. This challenge slashes that time in the most unbelievable manner.

In many ways, the 24hr Theatre Challenge concept sounds like some kind of drunken bet. Put together writers, directors, and actors at 7pm on a Friday and by 8pm the following night have 5 new plays, written, cast, directed, rehearsed and ready for public performance. It all sounds like a recipe for disaster destined to be a blunder of epic proportions!

However, that is just not how it happens. Quite to the contrary. This year, as last, the amalgam of talent and tenacity all came through, with some great plays and acting that, at its best, was far beyond the merely promising.

The mood during the day veered from an unnerving focus and calm to panic and fear, It's a bit like being in the eye of a storm - knowing that something big is about to happen but not quite knowing what the consequences are going to be.

With a collection of well written works the acting and directing teams produced fine efforts ranging from rest-home shenanigans to troubling walks down memory lane, Everything from gender confusion to a vampiric love story.

Complicating the challenge, each team was also given a couple of random essential props that had to be used assigned to each team. Stuffed caterpillars, strings of garlic, a ladder and more were thrown in to the mix to equally confound and inspire the writers.

The final performances were a mixed bag of styles with everything from self-indulgent drama to over-the-top comedy. This singular effort to further boost the local stage performance scene achieved its community focussed goals yet again with old heads and new talents sticking their hands up to be part of it all and the incredibly varied programme proves that we can look forward to a great crop of talent in the performing arts in the near future and beyond.

Already looking forward to 2010!

Cheers

Jon Tamihere


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