Town Hall Theater's Pop-Up Plays Returns

Town Hall Theater's Pop-Up Plays return with a fresh crop of never-before seen plays.

The process of creating Pop-Up plays is simple: 6 playwrights stay up all night writing a ten minute play, based on photos of their actors (many of whom they've never met) and random instructions called "curveballs". The next morning, the hot-off-the-press scripts are given 17 local actors and 6 courageous directors to rehearse and memorize in 10 hours. Whatever they come up with premieres in front of a live audience that evening.

The entire process - from the first playwrights' meeting to the curtain falling on the final play takes 24 hours.

Last year's wildly comic plays featured a portal to another universe, a demon, Thomas Pynchon, end of life care, and a cross-dressing criminal. What will this year bring? No one knows. Not even the playwrights.

"My goal here is to get those creative juices flowing by asking everyone to do the impossible," says Pop-Up creator and producer Haley Rice. "Playwrights might come in with an idea about what play they're going to write, but because of the curveballs, they have to include something like a hospital gurney and a character who speaks in Farsi, and suddenly the whole equation changes." Past curveballs have included "include 5 glasses of water," "give a character an accent then make them lose that accent" and "include a slap and a kiss".

This year's Pop-Up Play participants have been through this madness before, some in different roles. Past playwright Chris Caswell is directing this year. Former director Jordan Gullikson is a playwright. Past playwrights Jessie Raymond, Dana Yeaton and Geeda Searfoorce return.

Jessie Raymond's Pop-Up Play from last year is a finalist in a national ten-minute play competition. In between Pop-Up Plays, Jessie also wrote a one-act play which premiered at Town Hall Theater last November. "It's inspiring to know that Pop-Ups have a life past the one day, and that the playwrights continue to write and grow," said Haley.

This year's theme, "Roll With It" means that each play must incorporate something that rolls. As with last year, the audience will be able to vote on a line that must be included in each play. Last year's winner was "No you fool, don't go in there!" "It was great to see how the audience reacted when they heard the line!" said Haley. "It was also fascinating to see how differently each playwright used the line. It became this running joke through the evening and we were all in on it."

To vote for this year's line, visit http://www.townhalltheater.org/pop-up-plays-vote-for-the-line/ .