Acorn Productions Presents FIRST ANNUAL 24-HOUR PLAY FESTIVAL 5/2

Acorn Productions is pleased to offer local audiences the opportunity to experience the theatrical equivalent of a high-wire act -- better known as the 24-Hour Play Festival. In this event, a group of actors works with a director and playwright to create plays in 24 hours; sharing their work with the public on Sunday, May 2nd at 7:30 p.m. at the St. Lawrence Arts Center. This project is produced by Acorn Productions as the culminating event of the Maine Playwrights Festival, now in its ninth year. It will be funded through a grant from Maine Theater Fund administered by the Maine Community Foundation. Admission is free with a $5 suggested donation.

The premise of the project is simple, but the execution is far from easy. Within 24 hours five plays will be written, rehearsed, directed, produced, and staged. The grueling and adrenaline-filled process begins on Saturday night, May 1, when five playwrights meet to draw actors' names out of a hat. Armed with their casts, the playwrights have 12 hours to come up with a ten to fifteen-minute play. The playwrights are also expected to include a shared prop, a line of dialogue and a location, which have been secretly provided by a playwright not associated with the project. In the morning, the playwrights hand off their scripts to the five directors who gather their casts and spend the next 12 hours rehearsing.

By the time the lights go down for the first show at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the casts have had a technical rehearsal, full production rehearsal, and numerous opportunities to tweak the script. The plays have been lit, costumes have been chosen, programs have been printed, and the show is ready to go on.

The 24-hour Play Festival features the following playwrights, all of whom have had worked included in the Maine Playwrights Festival: Lynne Cullen, Carolyn Gage, Kathy Hooke, Michael Kimball, and Michael Tooher. Directors are Laura Graham, Shawna Houston, Michael Howard, Mike Levine, and Stephanie Ross,. The actors will be chosen from Acorn-affiliated artists including members of Naked Shakespeare, cast members from past and present Maine Playwrights Festival, and students at the Acorn Acting Academy.

The 24-hour Play Festival is an extension of the work Acorn Productions has done over the first nine years of the Maine Playwrights Festival to support the development of new plays by local authors. The Maine Playwrights Festival started in 2001 as a series of dramatic readings in the old Acorn School for the Performing Arts on Congress Street (there was no festival in 2003). Since that time, Acorn has presented 74 plays by 49 different playwrights at a variety of venues, moving to the St. Lawrence in 2005 where the festival continues to make its home each spring. Several plays developed at the MPF have gone on to success in other markets, most notably Carolyn Gage's "The Poorly-Written Play Festival" and Michael Kimball's "Actual Glass," both of which were invited to festivals in NYC after their MPF production. Acorn's commitment to fostering the development of new plays has extended into year-round programming in the Acorn Studio Theater, including a Friday night dramatic reading series that takes place once a month, and a Playwrights Lab taught 3 times a year by Producing Director Michael Levine. Acorn Productions is dedicated to nurturing the performing arts by building collaborations between groups of artists.

When: Sunday, May 2nd at 7:30 p.m.
Where: St. Lawrence Arts Center
How Much: Free (suggested donation $5)
FMI: 854-0065 or www.acorn-productions.org

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