19th Annual 24-Hour Play Festival Comes to The Contemporary Theater Company Next Week

The Contemporary Theater Company is back with its annual theatrical feat, The 24-Hour Play Festival on January 13 at 8 pm. This celebration of creativity and collaboration is a collection of six short plays written, rehearsed and performed in a single day.

“The 24-Hour Play Fest is one of my favorite days of the year,” says CTC Artistic Director Tammy Brown. “We get to remind ourselves that what seems impossible is within reach!”

The playwrights begin the process at midnight, writing through the night until the actors and directors arrive in the morning to begin casting and rehearsing the plays. The Festival requires a lot of quick decisions from everyone involved in order to get the shows across the finish line by the end of the day.

“Because there's not a ton of time to think or plan, it means we get to have fun making the wildest choices possible,” says Brown. “It's a fantastic opportunity to tap into our creativity in all kinds of new and surprising ways.”

This is the 19th annual festival; it has been featured in the theater's season every year since 2006. The play festival has been a staple of the company's schedule since the early days, so there are many participants and audience members who remember years of festivals.

“It's the kind of show where during intermission, audiences are all talking about their favorite moments and what surprised them,” says General Manager Maggie Cady who will be participating in her 12th Festival this year. “I'm always amazed at the wide variety of shows each year. Usually, you'll have some that are very funny, one or two that are out-of-the-box experiments, and some that really pull on your heartstrings.”

Photos, videos and stories are uploaded to the company's Facebook and Instagram throughout the day, allowing the audience to keep up with the process as it unfolds before watching the performance at the theater in the evening.

The performance is January 13 at 8 pm at the theater in Downtown Wakefield.

“You want to come be in this audience because this is the one and only performance of these shows,” says Cady. “All theater is ephemeral, but this is a truly one-of-a-kind experience. This kind of magic only comes once a year.”

A complete schedule of shows and more information is available at www.contemporarytheatercompany.com or by calling 401-218-0282.

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