BareBones Theatre Group presents yet another round of theatre created in a day with the
Revenge of 24 Hour Theatre Project
Five playwrights are given a theme Friday, July 27 at 8 p.m. from which they must write a ten minute play to be staged, rehearsed and performed the next day, Saturday, July 28 at 8 p.m. –- just 24 hours later!
Actors and directors then spend the ENTIRE DAY getting acquainted with the script. And it all unfolds that evening in front of a live audience (in a completed state... or not)! It's like the creative process on speed!
WE SOLD OUT LAST TIME, SO BE SURE YOU GET TO THE THEATRE EARLY TO ENSURE YOUR SEAT!
One show: 8 p.m.
What They Said About It...
Couples write scripts in 12 hours -- complete shows done in 1 day
By Julie York Coppens, Charlotte Observer
July 27, 2007
Marriage. A baby. An ill-fated stint with an avant-garde theater company in the upper Midwest.
Through it all, Aaron Moore and Nicia Carla have stuck together.
But writing a play in tandem, on a 12-hour deadline? Can love survive?
"I'm very curious to see how it will work out," says Moore, a veteran of BareBones' popular "24-hour Theater Project" sharing script duties this time, for the first time, with his wife.
In a fun but possibly ruinous twist on the "24-Hour" formula, this weekend's scripts will be composed -- between 8 p.m. tonight and 8 a.m. tomorrow -- by couples, married and otherwise. The six playlets will be cast with volunteer actors Saturday morning, rehearsed all afternoon, and performed once, at 8 p.m. Saturday night at Spirit Square. The show typically sells out.
"We've collaborated on things before," Moore says of Carla, an associate artist of Children's Theatre of Charlotte. "She's directed me in plays, we've acted together in plays, we've been married five years, we have a child -- but primarily, writing has been my domain."
In five past "24-Hour" outings, Moore has written some of the event's funniest scripts: a political allegory in which apathetic citizens "vote" for a meal of cat feces and, last year, a cautionary domestic tale involving Internet pornography and romance novels. Among others.
"I think the trick to writing them is not to be possessive," Moore says. "You have to have integrity, but you also have to have flexibility."
As in marriage: "You don't want to get pushed around and have your bedroom wallpapered with mauve and lavender if you hate mauve and lavender. But at the same time, you can't domineer every tiny detail," Moore says. Still, tonight, "I'll be the one who sits at the computer, because I type faster."
BareBones artistic director Jim Yost admits that having couples write the plays represents some danger -- both for the plays and for the couples.
"It could be a complete disaster and we don't get any finished scripts. But I don't think that will happen," Yost says.
Nor has he asked Moore, Carla and the other playwriting teams to sign waivers releasing BareBones of any responsibility should this latest "24-Hour Theatre Project" have dire relationship consequences.
"I can't imagine that being locked in a room with your spouse and a blank page will result in divorce," Yost says. "They'll come up with some interesting stuff, and hopefully their marriages will remain intact."
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