Glacier students take on '24 Hour Plays' challenge

The Wolfpack Theatre Company at Glacier High School will join forces with alumni and current students and teachers to participate in an extreme rite of theater: writing, directing and performing six to 10 original short plays, all in just 24 hours.

Billed as “24 Hour Plays,” this creative collaboration will take place Friday and Saturday in the Wolfpack Theatre at Glacier High. The community is invited to watch the final production of the two-day innovative event at 6:33 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $5 at the door.

“This is our second annual ‘24 Hour Plays’ project. And after the great success of the first production last fall, we are excited to tackle this project again,” said Ivanna Fritz, director of Wolfpack Theatre Company.

“It's not a huge time commitment and a great way to connect or re-connect with the Glacier community after the summer break. Why not make the most out of 24 hours of your life?”

The creative process begins at 4 p.m. Friday, when the group will gather in the Wolfpack Theatre. After everyone has been briefed and the actors have worked through improvisations and auditions, the writers will begin to select their casts and get imaginative. Each writer composes a 10-minute original play.

At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, the directors return, read the plays and battle for the script they want to direct. The casts meet for the first time at 8 a.m., discover their roles and quickly get to work rehearsing.

With less than 12 hours of script time and 20 minutes of technical rehearsals, the entire company is ready for the audience to arrive.

The doors open at 6 p.m. At 6:33 p.m., ink still wet on the page, the new plays premiere for a live audience.

"I first heard about the 24 Hour Play Project several years ago when a couple of our graduates told us about the project in New York and in California. It really sounded dynamic, and I love the creative elements,” said Greg Adkins, a member of the Wolfpack Theatre Company staff. “The idea of working on a production with a 24-hour deadline is pretty intense."

Fritz added: “We've been looking for a project that can help bring together past and present theater students. We have a saying at Glacier that ‘tradition never graduates.’ That couldn't be more true for the Wolfpack Theatre Company.

“Our former students come back and support us by attending shows; now we'd like them to be a part of it.”