After one day of preparation, three one-act plays graced the Café Theater on Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. The set of performances was a part of the Trinity University Players (TUPS) annual 24 Hour Play Festival, in which plays are written, rehearsed and performed all in 24 hours.
Anna Kayser, sophomore political science major and TUPS recruitment and retention officer, produced the festival. She said that writers come in and start the script the evening before showtime, and at 9 a.m. the next day, actors show up to memorize the script by 6 p.m. performance time.
A perk of the play festival, Kayser said, is that it invites students of all backgrounds to try new things. Jorge Morfin, junior neuroscience major, typically acts, but due to the low stakes of the festival, he felt comfortable enough to write and share his ideas for the stage.
“I like seeing the actors also enjoy the show, because that’s one of the scariest things about writing, is that you don’t know if your actors are going to enjoy their performance of your work,” Morfin said. “And so whenever they’re up on stage, and it looks like they are actually enjoying themselves, I think that’s one of the best parts.”
The performances varied, from lovers tragically dying in the woods on a stormy night to flirtatious, sweaty chess rivals and a cheesy “Saw” meet-cute. While love was the main theme this year, unofficially, water was too.
Every actor had to spray themselves with spray bottles, creating the illusion of being wet from the rain or sweat. At a point during one play, the actors completely doused themselves with buckets of water outside before returning to the stage.
Audience member Maizy Dangler, first-year math and finance double-major, heard about the festival through Instagram and friends from the choir. She said that she left the Café Theater thoroughly impressed.
“That was lovely. The use of water – lovely,” Dangler said. “When things are rushed as quickly as this, you just never know what’s gonna happen.”
This year’s 24 Hour Play Festival was over as quickly as it started. The next festival will be next February with new scripts, new themes and potentially more water.
