THE 24 HOUR PLAYS Celebrate The Fifth Anniversary With Secret Show And New Pieces

This week, The 24 Hour Plays gathered with artists and supporters in Brooklyn to celebrate the fifth anniversary of The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues.

The company held a secret screening last Monday, hosted by alum Hugh Dancy and featuring new monologues written, rehearsed, and performed in just 24 hours, including live performances at the show, kicking off a weeklong celebration of the series.

In March 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization launched a socially distanced version of The 24 Hour Plays, intended as a one-time-only adaptation of their process for artists sheltering in place. This new iteration resonated deeply and, over time, brought together over 1000 artists to create new work during an incredibly challenging time. These pieces were viewed (for free) more than six million times and are archived in the Library of Congress.

Hugh Dancy, a recurring performer in the series, hosted the event and spoke movingly about the early days of the pandemic.

"Obviously, it was the really early days of all of us sitting around. I don't even know if we were calling it 'the pandemic' at that point, but all we really had in common was that we didn't know what the hell was going on. It was way more questions than answers...we were just waiting," said Dancy. "In that moment, Mark Armstrong's email popped into my inbox and basically said 'I'm just trying to garner enthusiasm, if you have any interest in recording a monologue at home, just write back one word: yes.' And I didn't really think about it, I just wrote back YES!"

All monologues are now available for free viewing on The 24 Hour Plays' website. Monologues included Where Do We Go, featuring Dancy and written by Warren Leight ("Law and Order: SVU"); Bit Of A Tourist featuring Denis O'Hare ("American Horror Stories") and written by Rachel Axler ("Veep"); Santana Fontino Sings The Blues By Stephen Advil Flock O' Geese, featuring Santino Fontana (Frozen) and written by Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside and Crazy), Open Position featuring Jeremy Shamos (Clybourne Park) and Nina Hellman (Wet Hot American Summer) and written by David Lindsay-Abaire (Kimberly Akimbo), You Told Me So featuring Morgan Siobhan Green (Hadestown) and written by Chisa Hutchinson (Amerikin), Good Advice featuring David Hull ("Crazy Ex-Girlfriend") and written by Michael Mitnick (Scotland, PA), a live performance of to Hugh Dancy, Bill Heck, Caroline Neff, alex gould, Frankie Gonzalez, and lee killam, with love featuring Ashby Gentry ("My Life with the Walter Boys") and written by christopher oscar peña ("Promised Land"), and GLEN !!! featuring Vanessa Ray ("Pretty Little Liars") and written by Lily Houghton (Forbidden Fruits).

"I'm so happy to be marking the anniversary of this, it meant so much to me personally, doing these," said Dancy. "And on a bigger level, I think it's great that we can celebrate the organization."

More information about the event and online celebration can be found at 24hourplays.org/vm-celebration.

ABOUT THE 24 HOUR PLAYS

The 24 Hour Plays (est. 1995, Mark Armstrong, artistic director; Madelyn Paquette, managing director) bring together creative communities to produce plays and musicals written, rehearsed, and performed in twenty-four hours. Through our radically present approach to theater, we make work that responds immediately to the world around us, builds communities and generates new artistic partnerships that extend throughout the arts and entertainment industry. Our events include The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals, as well as productions in Athens, Denver, Dublin, Finland, Florence, Germany, Little Rock, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco, Savannah and more. Beginning March 17, 2020, The 24 Hour Plays Viral Monologues series generated over 600 new free-to-view theater pieces, featuring over 1000 artists, viewed millions of times worldwide and archived in the Library of Congress.