SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The Contemporary Theater Company’s 18th Annual 24-Hour Play Festival’s culminating performance took place last Saturday evening. In a whirlwind effort, writers, directors, actors, and stage crew assembled six unique works, all conceptualized and performed within a total timeframe of 24 hours.
The Festival, which has become quite popular with CTC audiences, has grown and shifted over time, evolving into its current marvel, which provides the audience with the wit and wisdom of six writers, the deft of six directors, and the theatrical prowess of six separate casts.
Since the Festival has been running for nearly two decades, many of the players — including writers, directors, and cast members — have had the opportunity to participate in various capacities and fulfill different roles.
Tammy Brown, the company’s Artistic Director, has now participated in 12 Festivals. She spent the first five years as an actor, the next four as a director, and has overseen the Festival since she became the Artistic Director a little over two years ago. This year, she opted to reengage her creativity and direct a team.
“Theater is kind of like a slow-cooking art form in a way,” she explained. “But when you condense all that down? The writing, the directing, the acting, the props, and the tech all into one day? It really forces you to flex all the creative muscles you have at once. I just think it’s a really fun, satisfying, energizing exercise, which is a great way to start off our year.”
The Festival — part drama boot camp, part game show — combines all aspects of theatre production with wildcard elements like asking teams to use particular lines in their scripts or presenting each team with interesting or odd props they must incorporate into their shows. The writers arrived at 11 p.m. on Friday and were given short prompts about the main plots of their shows. Then they each got to writing. At 6 a.m. Saturday, writers finished up and submitted their pieces to the theater. The writers were then paired with directors, who spent a little time with the script, and then the writers went home.
Two hours later, 18 participating actors showed up to learn and perform a monologue that would serve as their auditions. Then the director, cast, and crew were off and running — learning lines, running scenes, and setting the tone on stage. As if that were not enough, the “Master of Chaos”, Contemporary’s Director of Art and Design Rebecca Magnotta, threw each team periodic curveballs, asking them to incorporate even more lines, props, and stage directions.
As for the tone, mood, and subject matter of the works presented, in general, nobody knew what the results would be.
“I think that’s part of the fun of it,” Brown said. “You walk in in the morning having no idea at all what type of thing you’re going to be working on, so I just have to try to have as much fun as possible.”
“We get to stretch ourselves,” she continued. “We get to take chances. We get to be wild and have fun in ways that you might not want to risk when you’re doing a regular main stage show.”
This year’s Festival brought lots of laughs and the enthusiasm of Magnotta as emcee. The audience was able to participate after the show by voting in several different categories including Best Costume, Best Performers, Best Prop, and Best Writing.
The Best Overall Show, “Grain Co. BananaFlakes Presents: The Thrilling Adventures Of Noodles The Campy Clown,” won Best Writing as well. The performance, which was a tongue-in-cheek look behind the scenes of a children’s radio show, brought tension, humor, and suspense. The play’s actors, Laura Kennedy as Cowboy Boots, Ryan Sekac as Candy Beard the Pirate, and Matt Fraza as Crunchy the Monkey, brought to the audience depth of character and complex relationships one would expect from a well- and long-rehearsed show. The characters were nuanced and presented intricacies no one watching would have suspected had been created that same day.
The show was funny, well-written, engaging, suspenseful, and superbly acted.
Though “Noodles The Campy Clown” earned accolades, the remainder of the shows presented won categories as well. “The Codes or Whatever,” the story of an inept spy struggling through a recent breakup, also won a Best Writing accolade. The amount of dialogue learned by the characters before the performance was impressive. The team’s use of one of their wildcard props — a pair of giant ceremonial scissors — somehow also ended up fitting seamlessly into the story.
“I Will Kick That Soccer Ball If It Kills Me” provided the audience with endearing performances as well as clever use of the performance area, and “Body and Spirit” worked literal magic with its props and technical elements.
Sadly, the 24-Hour Festival only runs for one evening and comes but once a year. As a longstanding tradition for the Contemporary Theater, audiences will again have the opportunity to experience the Festival next January.