On Friday April 11, two teams of MHS theater students were locked in a Redwood City building for 24 hours and told to write a play from scratch. Schools from all over the Bay Area joined them, and MHS sent two full teams to participate. Teams “Switched” and “Only 24 Hours,” made up of eight MHS students each, attended a 24-Hour Play Festival hosted by TheatreWorks, an overnight experience for high school and college students to improve playwriting, acting, and teamwork skills.
Prior to the event, Junior Scott Hall of “Switched” said that he didn’t really know what to look forward to. “I’m excessively excited for staying up until five in the morning drinking nothing but coffee and trying to get a script written,” he said. “I’m going in expecting to be very stressed, to write a play that I’m going to be somewhat proud of, and then leave just so I could go home and sleep.”
Upon arrival, Hall and his teammates were given a theme and a set of props their 10 minute plays had to incorporate. The teams were asked to incorporate a minute of silence or music, a kiss or a death, and a certain prop—“Only 24 Hours” was given a lamp and a poncho to use in their plays, Freshman TJ Dunn said.
“We were given a theme we had to incorporate too, and ours was ‘lost and found,’” Dunn said. “My play was about a genie tethered to this lamp. The only way to free himself was to get someone to sign a contract and take his place. The genie convinces me to sign the thing, and in the last few seconds I wish for my parents to be found. I get a call from the CPS, and they found my parents, and they’re dead.”
His team incorporated a moment of silence after Dunn’s character was bound to the genie’s lamp and he found out that his parents are dead. “These people are walking by, and he’s trying to get their attention, but there’s just silence,” Dunn said.
Teams were awarded a numerical place or a superlative title, and Dunn’s play received the “Most Fantasy” award, according to Hall, whose play about a transvestite received “Most Fearless.”
“I left there with a view of oppression that I had never considered before in my life,” Hall said. “It was a truly beautiful experience. I loved my play, but I was very uncomfortable because it was a very uncomfortable situation, but I feel like because I was uncomfortable, it was a good thing.”
Hall, Dunn, and their teammates participated in various workshops throughout the night about playwriting, acting, and directing. The workshops were led by professionals from TheatreWorks, Hall said, and he went to all three of them. “They got us writing, and explained that we need to make it clear what the setting is, and the conflict has to be interesting,” Hall said. In the acting workshops, there were improvisation activities and games to teach students where to look or what to do if they forgot their lines.
The experience brought both MHS teams closer to one another and to the teams from other schools. When Dunn arrived, he found people from his team talking to people from other schools, and he grew closer to his own teammates as well as these strangers.
“I learned how to stand up for myself,” Hall said, “and to take opportunities as they come—to be the first to volunteer for everything so other people start volunteering, and I wrote a play that I was insanely proud of.”
CE: Jamie