Students create, stage, and perform an original show – all in 24 hours

Actors, writers, scenic designers and every theatrical creative in between decided to take on a challenge: produce an entire original show in only 24 hours. The dedicated creatives shared a full 24 hours producing an original show for a live audience. This is the second consecutive year Truman’s theatre fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega, decided to take on the challenge. 

Participants began the event at 7 p.m. on Jan. 30 in Baldwin auditorium for orientation. The event President of Alpha Psi Omega Lily Holland helped organize the event, and she said it attracted new people outside of the theatre program. 

“I was really excited that we got some more people outside of our theatre department to come in,” Holland said. “We’ve been trying to expand and get more people involved in the arts because [theatre] connects people that way. I like theatre to feel like a community. The fact that we were able to get new people involved and hopefully start building those connections is really exciting.” 

Holland said 24 Hour Theatre attracted new individuals to the theatre program because the commitment was much less than a typical stage production, as the event went from 7 p.m. on Jan. 30 to 7 p.m. on Jan. 31. There were 33 participants who worked on scenic design, writing, stage managing, costumes, lights and the like to create an original production. 

Writers Abbi Payne, Grant Wayland, Jess Steinman and Liberty Murphy gathered in Baldwin auditorium’s green room at 7:30 p.m. and were working on the script until it was finalized at 3 a.m.

“It’s really fun to smash out a script,” Murphy said. “I feel very accomplished with myself afterward. I know I did not write every word, but that’s a lot of writing. And it’s very fun to watch other people bring it to life.” 

The writers said by 11 p.m., they finalized a first draft of their play “Dragged Into Murder,” a comedic murder mystery that incorporated drag queens, drama, funny lines and an elderly homicide victim, who was revealed to only have severe narcolepsy.

As the other crew members and actors waited for the writers to draft a script, they were encouraged by APO to rest before their call times late into the night. Anastasia Jensen, who served as an assistant stage manager, waited several hours in the auditorium before her calltime.

Jensen said she previously participated in 24 Hour Theatre as an actor. This year, APO assigned Jensen an assistant manager role because 24 Hour Theatre challenges its participants to explore different parts of the creative process. 

“One exciting thing about 24 Hour Theatre is that it’s a good opportunity to try new

things out,” Jensen said. 

Costume designer Ruthann Kimbrell said her call time was at 11:30 p.m., when the first draft of the script was presented. After learning about the characters, she began brainstorming costume ideas and began to gather materials at 2:30 a.m. Kimbrell, along with assistant costume designer Elliot McGowan, connected the characters to “Clue.”

“I really like the storytelling aspect of [costuming],” Kimbrell said. “I love that it helps people get into character, and helps people see the character. There’s a lot that we can do within costuming.”

Jensen said she recognized changes in her peers as exhaustion began to affect everyone. However, Jensen said that this year, resting periods were built in, so no individual was awake for a full 24 hours.

Actors officially received the finalized scripts at 3 a.m. and began memorizing a 20 page script that would be performed in front of an audience in 17 hours. Actor M. Brotherton, who was cast as a “momfluencer,” a mother who documents her life on social media, named Michelle “Shelly” Addams, said exhaustion was a key challenge for everyone involved. 

“[The biggest challenge was] trying to remember everything because some of us may have gotten naps, but you’re running on a super tired brain,” Brotherton said. “It’s like, I need to get this down, but remember what I’m doing, but I’m tired… You kind of just got to leave that behind and put [the show] at the forefront.” 

By 7 p.m., audience members filled the available seats placed on the stage and began to flood the balcony. Holland said she was extremely happy with how the entire event went, and said the participants were able to learn valuable lessons from it. 

“The biggest lesson that I think people had to learn was being able to reflect on their own state and communicate that to other people,” Holland said. “You had to not only learn what you were doing and collaborate with other people…but you also had to be taking care of yourself in this marathon stretch of 24 hours.”