This weekend, three talented playwrights, eight actors, one director and one stage manager will be put to a scary test: Write and perform an entire play within 24 hours. These 13 undergraduates are part of an insanely ambitious creation called Insomniac Theatre.
Ryan Ford and Nate Snyder are the main organizers of Insomniac Theatre, and they’re determined to take this challenge head-on. In fact, none of the crew will know what the play will be about until the playwrights write it that night.
“The point is not to discuss it until we get together and actually start writing,” Snyder said.
They and Mike Swaim comprise the team of writers who will get together Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. and write a masterpiece within four or five hours. From there, director Stephanie Lee will help the actors get into character; rehearsal will continue nonstop until Saturday night when the play is performed. All of this will take place within the span of 24 hours, including technical rehearsal — which might be a problem, considering the high ceiling of Dance Studio 3.
“Technical stuff like lighting takes two or three days to complete, but we have to do this within a couple of hours,” Snyder said.
Is time management a problem? Most definitely, but coffee will be served if anyone has less than enough adrenaline needed to stay awake. Nevertheless, Ford seems rather confident.
“I’m not really that worried,” he said. “I have no doubt that this will go on without a hitch, and by Saturday this thing will be great.”
Even though this type of theater is entirely new here at UCSD, other university theater departments all over the country have dabbled in it. Ford learned about it at his community college and wanted to do new things that weren’t being done here.
“I would love for Insomniac Theatre to be an annual event,” he said.
Since cabarets consist of voluntary undergraduates, this one-hour play will be no exception. Actor Gali Weissberger said, “I’m going to bring my sleeping bag and camp there” to witness the entire production in action. Even with the time constraint, both actors such as Weissberger and writers seem to eagerly anticipate the event more than being apprehensive about it.
Ford alone has been in theater for seven years and is presently the production manager of the New Play Spectacular Theatre Festival, while Swaim and Snyder both have experience in writing plays or acting in them. Ford and Snyder actually met when they both performed in Corpus Christi, Texas, last fall quarter, and Snyder has written a play called “Cricothyroidotomy” that was performed last year. Swaim also wrote a full-length play that will be performed in week 10 of this quarter.
Come see the new Insomniac Theatre play for free this Saturday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. in Dance Studio 3, across from Stonehenge. If caffinated all-nighters and a talented crew can’t make a good play, then what can?
