Warren Township High School Theatre students raced against the clock as they assembled five different plays, which were all written and performed within the allotted 24 hours, raising over $1,000 for their program. 

Students signed up for three potential roles varying from writers to costume designers. Then they were given the theme of the 24-hour play festival, and the writers began to recruit actors. The theme for the festival this year was revealed as “Failure Is an Option.” Writers spent all night drafting their scripts to fully encapsulate the given theme.

“We started writing as soon as we left the writers meeting around 5 pm and finished around 4:30 am,” said writer Colin Coyle. “It took us around five hours to think of plot and characters, and six and a half hours to actually write and format.”

Colin Coyle and Jiya Shah wrote a split play containing two storylines with the relationship dynamics between a bully and a nerd as well as a director and an actor. From a storyline of a college rejection to the lack of ability to dance, there were a variety of relatable elements that were displayed in this play. 

At 10:30 pm Friday night, the advisors checked in on the writers, gave them critiques, and helped them maintain a script that was just long enough and contained formulated characters. Many tweaks and revisions were made before they were sent in the next morning for the rest of castmates to see. 

“We had to change many parts of our script. I can’t even tell you how many characters we went through,” said writer Aliyah Mundt.

Aliyah Mundt and Kelsey Elsman wrote a riveting spin on the Great British Baking Show, where three different countries compete to see which chef they will send to the moon. Their play was titled “Cold War II: Lunch is Launched.” They struggled to pick which countries to include and what jokes to write that would maintain the overall prompt and message of the play. Their script ended with a satisfying cliffhanger that made the audience truly realize that failure is normal. 

Saturday morning everyone came together with the finalized scripts printed out and directors started delegating tasks between the tech and costume departments to start developing the overarching tone of the play they were assigned. The plays were rehearsed and tweaked as the day progressed. 

“I’d say aligning everything to not only fit but augment your artistic vision is the hardest but most rewarding thing a director has to do,”  said director Noah Adrian.

For many of the directors it was their first time having such a leadership role in a swift production such as this festival. Directors went through a lot of stress and pressure to maintain the authenticity of the writing while adding their own style to it. 

Before 6:00 pm the audience slowly started to trickle into the black box theater at the Almond campus despite the present snow storm that was ensuing outside.  

At 6:00 pm the premiere began and one by one each of the five plays were performed with their own unique level of creativity and artistic vision. The writers got to see their scripts come alive on stage as their friends and family supported them in the audience.

“It’s incredible to me that you can create and present art so quickly and even more incredible to watch other people enjoy it,” said Elsman. 

All the donations from that night will be going to the WTHS Theatre program for future productions like this one.