Written, staged and performed in 24 hours!

On Monday June 30th I participated in a 24 Hour Play Festival as part of a three week celebration of the re-opening of the Source Theatre in downtown DC. Ten playwrights met at the Source on Sunday evening, picked out of a hat a current event, a director and a cast size: then they had all night to write a play. The directors and playwrights met in the morning and from there the actors where called in. We then had all day to stage the script, memorize lines and rehearse the play. It was quite an adventure.

I was cast in a very clever spoof of Macbeth called MacBro written by Chris Graybill and directed by Jessie Gallogly, one of the festival’s associate producers. The play center around Christopher Ciccone, Madonna’s brother, who is currently writing an expose which is not endorsed by his sister. Our cast of five had a great time recreating various stages of Madonna’s life, I got to play the Witch who resembled her “Like a Virgin” phase. We had a lot of fun creating together and our play was well received by the audience, mostly due to Chris’s clever writing and our total acceptance of Madonna’s genius.

We closed the first act and I was then able to watch Act 2 and half of the shows. I was very impressed by my fellow actors, my good friend Caitlin Dennis rocked her show, and the playwrights. I thought Kathleen Akerley’s dance-theatre dealing of the Mexican wall issue was especially unique and inspiring. We had a great day and it was exciting to be a part of the Source Festival. Many thanks to Jeremy Skidmore, the festival’s producer. I am excited to see the renovated space come back to life again!