Elgin Academy to present first 24-hour Play Festival Saturday
Within 24 cumulative hours, Elgin Academy's theater students would have written, designed and directed three original short plays to be performed on stage before a live audience Saturday.
It's the Elgin school's first 24-hour Play Festival.
"We're hoping to instill in the students a sense of collaboration and creativity in a high-stakes environment," theater teacher Mary Bayer said. "They have such a short time. They have to push themselves. We're also instilling a sense of empowerment. Every step of the way this is the students' project. We want them to feel like they can create their own art and theater."
Performances begin at 6 p.m. at Elgin Academy's Kimball Street Theatre on the northeast corner of Kimball Street and Dundee Avenue.
Tickets are $5 at the door or $4 with a canned food donation. Proceeds will help support students' trip to the Illinois High School Theatre Festival in January at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Elgin Academy's festival is a collaboration between the theater workshop class where students study play writing and the school's chapter of the International Thespian Society - an honor society for high school actors.
Roughly 25 students are involved in the production. Students started working on the scripts Monday soliciting ideas from teachers and fellow students for inspiration. By midweek, technicians joined the production process working on design elements, such as scenery, costumes and props, and auditions were held to cast actors.
"We're having rehearsals today and then we have a full day tomorrow of rehearsals, getting all the technical elements, lights and sound ready to go ... and hopefully performing them for an audience," Bayer said Friday.
Each play will be different, yet focusing on "letting go."
"One is about someone trying to let go of their past. One is about letting go of a family member. Another is about letting go of a friend," Bayer said. "They are still in process and will be up until performance tomorrow. We also have our improv club performing as a transition between plays."
Bayer said some of her students are excited, while some are scared about putting their original work on display before an audience.
"I've never had the opportunity to write dialogue before. This is a new experience for us," said Amelia Deering, 17, of Batavia, who has been part of the theater program since sixth grade and performed in seven shows as an actor.
Deering is writing one of the shows, "Stuck in Time."
"It's exciting. It's like a new way to do theater, an unconventional way," she said.
If successful, Bayer hopes to make the fest an annual event.
"We really hope we get a good turnout," she said. "We are very excited. We don't really know what to expect."