Only 24 hours to go
PV Theatre completes and performs four plays in the span of 24 hours
Lights lit up the Pascack Valley stage on Saturday night at 7 pm and the audience fell silent as actors rushed onto the stage. Over the next hour, twelve students performed four ten-minute plays. On Friday night, just 24 hours earlier, the students of the theatre program did not even have their scripts in hand. This was PVHS Theatre’s first ever 24 Hour Theatre Festival.
At 7 pm on Friday night, crew and cast members brought in either the title of a song, a random line, or an object; the four writers chose one from each category. From there, writers had 20 minutes to outline a plot. They then pitched their ideas to the directors, who casted the shows. Behind the scenes, the crew worked to gather props and costumes for each group as well as setup the lighting, sound, and playbill for the show.
Junior Ryan Muska, who decided to try his hand at helping backstage rather than join the actors, said, “It’ll be fun to see what people can come up with in 24 hours.”
Many of those in the program were ready for the challenge that came with creating a show in a condensed time slot.
“I’m really excited,” said junior Amy Santo, co-creator of the playbill along with junior Jessica Snyder, “I feel like it’s going to be challenging, but also really fun because we all will be working together to make the final performance the best it can be.”
The first eleven hours of production were dedicated to writing while the rest of the day was spent learning lines, designing sets, and finding costumes. Dress rehearsal was at 5 pm and the house opened at 6:30 pm.
The first play, “Supervision,” was written by Brian Sumerau and directed by Carleigh Boyle. It told a story of three pre-schoolers (Isabella Liguori, Rachel McCambridge, and Patrick Sheil) who are left unattended by their teacher (Sarah McCambridge) and become possessed by a strange mask.
The next story, “Trials and Tribulations,” was written by Zach Panno and directed by Kaitlyn Toledo. It told the story of a detective (Julia Ganbarg) who watches from the afterlife as the most clueless detective in the department (Daniel Julis), along with the “help” of an officer (Keara Fernandez), attempts to solve her murder.
The third play titled “Christmess” was written by Nicole Zamlout and directed by Heather Flatley. In this story, a Jewish girl (Jaiden Price) goes out to party with her friends (Blair Abney and Mackenzie Klink), leaving her husband (Ryan Green) at home, alone, on their first Christmas Eve together.
The final play of the night was written by Jamie Ryu and directed by Ben Daniel. The play, titled “Of All the Boys”, was about a girl (Lindsey Cooper) who brings home her “bad boy” boyfriend (Nick LoCicero) to meet her disapproving, divorced mother (Julia Moore) and younger sister (Taylor Allgor).
The night ended with an applauding audience while the members of the festival took their final bow.
Junior Dan Julius said, “I was so impressed by the job that everybody had done in such a short period of time and [by] how great all of the shows were.”
PVHS Theatre’s next performance will be their fall drama “Metamorphoses”, running from November 17-19.
