For this newsletter we're going to focus on one activity: the 24 hour playwriting festival. I've taken part in three such festivals and recently I've spoken to a couple of teachers who include a 24 hour playwriting festival in their programs.
I think it's a fantastic opportunity for students in all facets of theatre: playwrights, actors, directors and technicians. Having a performance aspect at the end focuses and forces everyone involved to get a finished product done within the time limit. And there's nothing more rewarding than a finished project!
Follow the step by step outline below. Perhaps there's a 24 hour playwriting festival in your school's future.
I've taken part in three 24 hour play festivals, all with the same format:
The playwrights arrive at a designated spot at 7pm. The finished play is submitted to the festival at 7pm the next day. No length restrictions. No character restrictions. No theme restrictions.
Once we are all signed in, we are given four specific things, sayings, or concepts that must be incorporated into the play.
Seems simple enough, right?
It's really important when writing a play in this manner not to pre-write. Since you have no idea what the external concepts will be, you run the risk of spending the whole time wrenching your work to fit around the items instead of letting them flow naturally throughout the script. An item plunked into some dialogue without thought sticks out like a sore thumb.
However, I usually have a vague starting point. A character. A theme to explore. A location. Very vague. No pre-written dialogue, but perhaps a couple of point form ideas. To start in the black void of nothingness can easily lead to a bad case of writers' block.
For the last one I did, the four items were:
All of a sudden it wasn't so simple.
The first thing I did was freeze. My brain went totally numb because at first it seemed there was no way these four items could make their way into the same play!
For my vague starting point, I used two characters from another play I was working on. I thought the competition would be a great way to explore them. So I knew I would probably write a two-hander with these two characters, Franklin and Cara.
I had no idea what they would do in the play.
Luckily for me I had to take the subway home, so I had almost an hour to write nonsense notes. Nonsense is a great place to start. Don't think about what you're writing. Don't evaluate how good (or BAD) it is. Just write. Don't let your pen stop moving. Don't let it leave the page. At the end you'll have a complete stream-of-consciousness brainstorm to work with.
My brainstorming on the ice cream truck went something like this:
This last one made my brain go DING!
Ignore the impulse to have a completed product instantaneously. At this stage, nothing is wrong. Just write, write, write. While some plays do come instantly, most do not.
Once at home, I broke the remaining time up into sections:
I've never been able to create at the computer. I have to write longhand - that's just the way my brain works. So even though there's a time limit, for me there's no point going right to the computer because I'll just be staring at a screen.
It's a ritual for me to sit down with a pen and a pad of paper and just let ideas flow out.
I start in the middle of the play, the middle of a scrap of dialogue, write notes, write a character paragraph, write a monologue. It's all a jumble. I don't worry about formatting. The dialogue I write looks like this:
Hey Joe. / Hey Mary, how are you / Not bad. Did you hear about Lisa? / No! What happened?
Takes up less space that way.
The instant I get stuck, I draw a line across the page and move on to something else. In this phase, particularly with a time limit, it's important to throw structure, format, everything but the raw idea out the window.
If something, say a specific conversation, really starts to gel, I'll grab fresh sheet paper and start writing the conversation out over and over again. Not worrying about format, just focusing on the content. I get to know the characters and the dialogue better, and I get closer and closer to being ready to put the pieces together.
I take all my notes and transcribe them for the computer. Sure, if I started at the computer in the first place I may have more time to work on the play. But that's not how the writing process works for me. Never try and change the process when you've only got 24 hours!
At this stage I'm still not worried about the flow of the play. If there are gaps in the story I type MORE HERE and continue on. I don't worry about bad dialogue or characters making weird decisions. Just as in the first draft in any play, the first draft in a time limited process is not perfect. Worrying about the lack of time won't make it perfect either.
I had intended to go to bed between sections one and two. I had mapped out at least 50% of the play (with a clear sense of beginning and end) and I had a good grasp of the characters and how the four elements would work into the play. I was ecstatic!
Even with a short timeframe, I knew I wasn't going to be able to think clearly without some sleep. I would rather write a short good play and sleep in the middle, than crank out a long not-so-good play by writing all night.
But, after fifteen minutes of lying in bed staring at the ceiling, I knew sleep wasn't coming any time soon. So I got up and spent a couple of hours typing out all my notes. In the end, that turned out to be a good thing because I had fresh eyes and a fresh brain when I looked at my first draft in the morning.
This is the most troublesome section, as now I have to look at all those plot holes and all that bad dialogue and the weird decisions. Now's the time to worry.
This is the section I spent the most time on when writing my play - 6am to 2pm. Again, most of it is longhand as I think about the story and write out snatches of dialogue and character profiles.
Plays written in 24 hours are no different than any other play. If you want them to be good, then you need to create three-dimensional characters and a strong plot and so on. There's just much less time in which to create it. You have to be ruthless and efficient. There's no lollygagging - you must make decisions quickly.
In this section I'm connecting the dots, fixing problems along the way. If one problem is causing too much difficulty, move on to the next. Just keep moving.
The solution to some of the problems aren't ideal. Sometimes all you have is a bandaid to fix a problem even though you'd rather have contact cement. That's part of the deal when writing under a crunch.
Draft two for me means the play looks like a play. It has a beginning, middle and end. All the MORE HERE sections have been dealt with in some fashion - some with bandaids, some with glue - and it could be handed in, in a pinch. I was about 75% happy with my play at this point.
In this section I'm looking at the play as a whole. How does it play as a whole? Time is running out so it's important to think about the big picture.
My plays always benefit from a break. Fresh eyes, fresh brain. You always see something new when you've been away from a piece. That's why it's important to have others read your work - they've got fresh eyes.
A small break will help you find problems that might have been missed. I only had a 45 minute break (shower and eat!) because I knew I had to leave the house at 5:30. But even that little amount of time was useful.
I'm making sure the formatting is nice, spelling mistakes are fixed, and the images in the play are as clear as possible for the reader.
But I don't look too closely for fear of finding problems that may unravel everything.
In the download section you can read Kooky, my 24 hour play. I was thrilled with it. And… it won first place!
For this kind of exercise, it's not about the product but the process. How do you write under pressure? How do you include external elements?
No play will be perfect after 24 hours. But it's surprising to see what can be done. I think every writer should give it a shot.
The contests that I've been involved with were restricted to playwrights only. Let's involve writers, actors, directors and technicians for this event. That means the 24 hours includes writing, production and performance.
Using elements introduced at the start of writing time, playwrights finish a play within the first 12 hours (8pm to 8am). The plays are cast, staged, rehearsed and performed within the next 12 hours (8am to 8pm).
The most important part of this process is the set up. Get everyone on the same page before the writing begins so that on the day, there aren't any questions that eat up valuable time. Make sure that everyone - students and parents alike - understand the "writing all night" concept. 8pm to 8am. Your first time out will be met with a lot of questions and confused faces.
Be clear, have the ground rules in writing, get everyone's approval.
I would suggest leading up to this event to get into the habit of regular "instant play" exercises. Get students into the habit of writing a scene or a monologue under a time limit. Have an object written on the board and when students come into the classroom, they have ten minutes to write a scene.
This way, the sense of panic will not be so overwhelming. It will be just like they did in class but on a larger scale.
So how do you convince your school that a 24 hour playwriting festival is a good thing?
That's exactly what happens. Writing! Whether it's an all-night school event, or a 3-day weekend event, the writing still has to occur, and playwrights will feel the pressure of having to come up with a play on the spot.
Some students will be instantly inspired and able to get their play done without a hitch. This is not always the case.
If you're doing the all night event, it will be important for teachers to monitor students. See if there's anyone who's got the deer in the headlights look. You can't write their play for them, but you can certainly make suggestions such as making question lists, character profiles, and so on. Get them writing, whatever that writing may be.
At 8am, the writers are done and the directors receive the "finished" plays.
The first job is to read the script and cast the plays. This can be done in conjunction with a specific acting class, where the teacher and the director pre-casts and then posts the list at a designated time. Or, through a short audition process where actors perform cold readings of the script. Or, the director can post a cast list, with character descriptions at 8:30 and then say that auditions are at 11:00 giving actors time to prepare a short, (but perhaps not memorized!) piece.
This will be very exciting for everyone involved. No three to four month rehearsals. It's written, cast and performed in a day!
Directors should do what they would normally do: make notes, think of questions, decide on their set and so on. Again, just because the process is sped up, doesn't mean that the same steps shouldn't be taken. Otherwise, it becomes, "Oh I have to have a play blocked instantaneously!"
Directors also meet with the stage manager to decide on the set and set up a tech time for each play. I would suggest that each play gets 30 minutes for tech. The less time they have, the quicker decisions have to be made! You should also limit the number of set pieces that are available for each play.
Always remember that this is not a perfect production, this is an exercise in process. Don't focus on memorizing lines, for example. What's going to be the best for the play? What's going to make the actors most comfortable?
Each play meets with the stage manager, lighting person and sound person. (Depending on the nature of your school!) Lighting and sound be kept to a minimum. Perhaps directors have a cool wash and warm wash and one special. Perhaps they are allowed a maximum of five cues, for both light and sound.This will increase the chances of having the performances go smoothly. Simple choices, quick choices.
During the tech meeting it is the job of the stage manager to keep everyone on time.
Adding a performance element to the process gives high stakes to the entire event. A playwright just can't give up on their play in the middle of the night - it's going to be performed! Why not use the performance as a fundraiser - Make it pay what you can.
The whole evening should be fun and light-hearted. The playwrights will be giddy, the actors will be nervous. Explain in full what's happened in the last 24 hours to the audience. They will completely be on board and extremely forgiving!
This is meant to be a fun experience. So remember to have fun!
Read the play I submitted to the 2005 Toronto Fringe Festival 24 hour play contest.
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