Arizona artists will show their theater chops on a national platform, creating and performing a flurry of viral monologues in the course of 24 hours.
The effort by New York City-based The 24 Hour Plays is zeroing in on the state, deviating from its standard format in which monologues are created around a theme, pulling from a pool of internationally known playwrights such as David Lindsay-Abaire, Rebecca Gilman and Stacye Rose, and actors, including Daveed Diggs, Rachel Dratch, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ethan Hawke.
Before the pandemic hit, 24 Hour Plays did live performances of plays, but it quickly switched to a virtual format for monologues in response to COVID-19.
This is the first time the 25-year-old organization has homed in on one state to pull off the 24-hour challenge.
Writers and performers will be paired at 4 p.m. Monday, July 13, and 24 hours later, the first monologue will be released virtually; the remaining ones will be rolled out in 15-minute increments.
Arizona Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Sean Daniels has faith in the talent here. In fact, he was the one who pitched the idea to Mark Armstrong, 24 Hour Plays’ artistic director and an Arizona State University graduate.
“So we talked and I said what if …” Daniels said. “He loved the idea.”
With theater at a standstill, it was important for artists to keep the creative juices flowing, and for audiences to revel in the art form, Daniels said.
“Right now there’s not a lot of celebrations or joy or chances to congratulate each other,” said Daniels. “That day (July 14), we are offering this. I am so excited to see what everybody makes, watching them create and make something in their own house.”
After Daniels was given the go-ahead for the project, he contacted 15 Arizona theaters and asked them to forward the names of their best actors and playwrights; 12 of them responded.
Tucson theaters with skin in the game are ATC, Borderlands Theater, the Rogue Theatre, the Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre, the University of Arizona’s Arizona Repertory Theatre, and Winding Road Theater Ensemble.
Tucson actors participating include Veronica Conran, Gabriella de Brequet, Carley Elizabeth Preston, Jasmine Roth and China Young. The playwrights from Tucson include Esther Almazán, Monica Bauer, Sean Daniels, Milta Ortiz, Paul Michael Thompson and Elaine Romero.
The actors, who will film their pieces, will give the playwrights short bios, and that will be the prompt for the writing of the 700-word monologues, said Daniels.
“Writing within the parameters of this event is going to be a wonderful challenge,” says award-winning playwright Almazán. “I’m a playwright who needs to mull ideas over before I get to the page. I also like to get a messy draft done, then leave it for a few days before sculpting it. My normal process won’t be possible in the hours allotted. I’m eager to see what kind of creativity the material my actor gives me, combined with the time pressure, will provide in crafting the script.”
The quick turnaround is also an exciting challenge for Romero, who has had works mounted at theaters around the country.
“I embrace the challenge of the 24-Hour play format because it circumvents our expectations about what we should write,” she said. “There simply is no time for us to second-guess what we’re creating. It is truly a pure form.”
The spontaneity of the project appeals to her, she added.
“The instantaneous collaboration of having an actor handed to us, at the last second, makes the actual play something the playwrights could never plan,” she said. “The instant fusion of one’s own writing with the other surprise elements sends a playwright on a journey they would never have taken.”
24 Hour Plays has a national platform, and the Arizona-created monologues will have a wide audience.
“I want the rest of the country to look and see that Arizona artists are just as joyful and smart and rigorous as artists from New York or Los Angeles,” Daniels said. “The quality of work we have here is just as good as anywhere else. This is a great way to show it.”
