ONE DAY ONLY 32 To Be Presented At Rover Dramawerks

Rover Dramawerks' signature play festival, featuring seven short plays from concept to curtain in just one day, will be presented on Saturday, May 2 at 8:00 pm at the Courtyard Theater, 1509 H Avenue in Plano. 

The thirty-second installment of this one-time performance of seven new short plays will be the result of 24 hours of work by approximately 50 participants – actors, writers, directors, and technicians. An entire one-act play festival will be written, produced, directed, rehearsed, teched, and performed in a single 24-hour day.

One Day Only was first produced in the Metroplex in May of 2000 by Audacity Productions. Rover Dramawerks teamed up with Audacity for the next three festivals, and Rover went solo to present One Day Only 5 through 31. This kind of exciting festival has also been done with major stars in New York on Broadway and at the Old Vic in London.

Rover's One Day Onlys have become very popular among playwrights, directors, and actors in the area. Would-be participants are warned that positions fill up fast, and it's all first come, first served.

The general timeline of a One Day Only: At 9:00 pm on Friday, May 1, this motley group of writers, directors, and actors, as well as some technicians, get together for the first time at Reclamation Church, Rover's rehearsal space. A brief get-to-know you session (affectionately referred to as speed bonding) includes providing ideas for the writers – to be drawn out of a hat – and taking photos of the actors: no headshots and resumes are allowed. Then the writers stay at the rehearsal space and work through the night, each composing a ten-to-fifteen-minute play based on the subject he/she drew from the hat.

At 6:30 am on Saturday, May 2, the directors return. They quickly read the seven plays, decide who directs which play, and cast the plays from the photos taken the night before. The actors show up around 8:00 am and meet with their director and fellow cast members. The writers go home to get some sleep while the plays are blocked, memorized, and rehearsed by the director and actors.

The company moves to the Courtyard Theater around 2:00 pm, with tech rehearsal starting at 2:30. Then curtain is at 8:00 pm Saturday, May 2, when all the plays are presented for the first time at the Courtyard Theater. Seven world premieres! 

Hundreds of original short plays have been presented in Rover's previous festivals, and many have gone onto additional performances all over the U.S., as well as seeing additional performances with Rover Dramawerks. Next Stage Press has published 20 plays in three volumes of “The Best of One Day Only” scripts.