MOST THEATRE asks for time: weeks of rehearsal, rewrites, blocking, tech and polish before an audience sees the work. But what can Prescott’s theatre community make when the clock starts right now?
In August the Basin Lake Theatre Pro-ject, in collaboration with Cosmos Theatre Arts, brings The 24 Hour Plays – Out of the Box back for one performance only. The participants will gather on August 7 to prepare a public performance the next night in the Cosmos Theatre.
For the audience it will be a night of six brand-new ten-minute plays. For the artists it’s a full day of creative risk.
The 24 Hour Plays has been part of Prescott’s theatre memory going back years, with roots in earlier local productions, including a time when it was held at Prescott College. After several years of theatrical uncer- tainty, the tradition went quiet. Basin Lake Theatre Project helped bring it back, not only as a performance, but as a way for local artists to find one another again.
That history matters. The 24 Hour Plays is not just about making theatre quickly, but about keeping a creative tradition alive in Prescott as well, passing it from one group of artists to the next, and giving new people a doorway into the theatre community.
Behind the scenes the process begins like a theatrical draft. Actors arrive on Friday evening to audition, often through playful exercises that show personality, flexibility and nerve. Writers and directors then step away to choose their performers. A writer may see an actor who inspires them, only to have that person chosen before their turn. The result is part strategy, part instinct and part surrender.
Then the writers go to work.
While most of Prescott is asleep the playwrights are awake, building short plays around the actors they have been given and the prompt or theme of the night. By morning the scripts exist. That’s part of what makes the event so charged: the audience is watching something still warm from creation.
Saturday morning belongs to the handoff. Writers meet with directors, then step back. Directors take the scripts into rehearsal rooms. Actors arrive and begin turning fresh pages into performance. The day becomes a timed rotation of rooms, rehearsals, problem-solving and quick decisions. Costumes are found. Props are grabbed. A joke starts working. A moment that looked impossible at 9am begins to breathe by afternoon.
This year the challenge is even more immediate, because the plays will be performed in the round, where the performance happens in the center of the room. Sightlines matter, movements matter. Every choice has to work from many angles. The audience is always close to the action, wrapped around it.
That intimacy suits the spirit of The 24 Hour Plays. Rather than disguise the effort and process of mounting the produciton, the even celebrates it. Theatre is often described as magic, but here much of the magic comes in seeing how much trust it requires. Writers trust directors with new work. Directors trust actors to make choices. Actors trust each other to stay present. Technicians, costumers, crew and theatre staff hold the day together.
That support is what keeps the chaos from becoming panic. Schedules are planned. Rehearsal spaces are organized. Food, timing, tech and transitions are handled. The structure gives the artists room to take risks, allowing creators to create.
For Basin Lake Theatre Project’s Julie Harrington, that collaborative atmosphere is the heart of the event. It gives local artists a place to try, stretch, and jump into something without needing to be perfect. Experienced performers and new faces can share the room. Someone who isn’t cast may still be part of the crew. Someone new to the process may find themselves inside a community ready to welcome their energy.
That is what makes The 24 Hour Plays meaningful beyond the six short scripts. It becomes a snapshot of Prescott theatre at its most alive: messy, generous, inventive and human. Last year’s return carried the feeling of people finding each other again after years of uncertainty. This year builds on that momentum with a new space, a new shape and a new set of stories.
For audiences the invitation is simple: come see something that can only happen once. The plays will be written, rehearsed and performed within 24 hours, then they will become memory. No second weekend. No long run. No chance to see the show again.
The 24 Hour Plays – Out of the Box will play on Saturday, August 8, 7pm in the Cosmos Theatre, 222 N. Marina Street in Prescott. Tickets are available through Cosmos Theatre Arts. More information about Basin Lake Theatre Project is available at basinlaketheatre.org.
