By Mackenzie Langham | The 24-Hour Theatre Festival at Howard Payne University continues to be an all-encompassing event involving both HPU and surrounding high school students to promote the theatre program to prospective students.
Dr. Nicholas Ewen, assistant professor of theatre and chair of the theatre department, created this program at HPU 10 years ago and it has become a second semester staple.
“There is no preparation. Games and exercises make up the audition. Everyone who auditions gets a part. From 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. we have auditions, and at 8:30 p.m. the actors go home. Also, at 8:30 p.m. the directors and playwrights divvy up characters. At 9 p.m. the writers have their cast list and they start writing,” said Ewen.
Ewen said that the writers have from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. to write their plays, which end up about 15 pages long.
“At 8 a.m. the directors get the plays and the writers are done. The directors have an hour to read over the script and pick the cast, at 9 a.m., the actors come back to the theatre,” said Ewen. “They have from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday to learn their lines, get costumes, and put together lighting, props, scenery, and sound. From 7 – 9 p.m. are the performances for three brand new plays!”
Ewen said that in each 24-Hour Theatre Festival there is a twist thrown in for the playwright.
“This year the thing they had to include was our special guest artist, Darren McElroy, with Sight and Sound Theatres in Missouri.”
Aleah Curtis, sophomore theatre major from Georgetown, said that out of the three previous years of acting in the 24-Hour Theatre Festival, directing this year was a different experience. For her, the stress for directing leaned a different way than the stress of acting.
“Directing was a whirlwind. You don’t have a team. There isn’t someone who is in charge of light cues or sound cues. The director reads the script, comes up with the sound and light cues, comes up with the blocking, and prop list and costumes. It was stressful, but I loved getting to watch the performance,” said Curtis.
Alek Mendoza, a junior majoring in theatre education, from Bangs, said that this event brings in potential students of HPU as well as potential theatre majors.
“Our numbers are really good right now, theatre major wise, but of course the more the merrier! It is our job to be good examples and to reach out to those potential students. I feel that in my heart to express my love for theatre and also my love for Christ, because a lot of the students may not know Christ. That’s why we are called to serve as artists,” said Mendoza.
Curtis said that three years ago it was this event where she first made connections with people at HPU.
“It was the event that put the prayer in my heart: ‘God if you want me to go here, then open up the doors and this is where I’ll go,’” added Curtis.