Garrick Players hosted their annual 24 Hour Playfest on Saturday, September 18 in Hixon Theater.
The 24 Hour Playfest consists of students auditioning for an acting part the night before the show, then following auditions, the writers write all night for actors coming in at 8:00 a.m. to a full script. These actors rehearse all day until 8:00 p.m. and put on a show!
This year’s Playfest consisted of four plays, all written, acted, and directed by Lake Forest College students. The genres included comedy, mystery, and thriller.
The show opened with a play titled “1-800-Mile-High,” which was co-written by twins Celia and Laura Woldt ’18. Paris Burton ’19 played the light-hearted phone operator obsessed with magical penguin documentaries. Susie Delegeane ’19 played the phone operator who has been working at the same workplace for far too long. Answering calls and booking flights took a unique twist when a mysterious ringing third line revealed they ran a sex-phone line on the sly.
The atmosphere changed when the second play of the night began: “The Emerald,” written by Battle Kenney ’18. The stage lighting was dark. We heard the fretful voices of Kayleigh Day ’19 and Olga Gutan ’19 begin their lines. The two acted out their parts of being in a room together with nothing but a phone. Kayleigh used the phone’s cord to choke Olga until she became unconscious. It was eventually revealed that Kayleigh was part of a jewel heist and was using Olga for information on an expensive emerald.
Photo by Ashley Lamarre
“How to Get Away With Murder” (not affiliated with Shonda Rhimes) was a “who done it” featuring three museum employees, Ryleigh Hughes ’19, Sarah Lomas ’17, and Joe King, a high school student. The play hilariously revealed that all three of the employees took part in a murder.
Rebecca Howell ’17 was inspired to write the play since she reads “a lot of detective fiction” and wanted to write a murder mystery for the 24 Hour Playfest. Recognizing the limitations of only having 24 hours to create a play, Rebecca said she “tightened up a lot of the jokes and characterizations.” She also brought up the valuable point of writing a script “manageable for actors to memorize in a single day.”
The show ended with a bang: Austin Curren ’17 wrote a play called “Phone Shyt” which had the crowd in hysterics with a power acting sibling duo of Jenna Madeley ’16 and Tyler Madeley ’18. This play included character switches, a philosophizing talking phone (voiced by Austin), and a mom with a “dope ass lifestyle.” Jenna is no newbie to acting on campus, but says she was happy to share her “passion of the theater with him.” Something audience members might not have known while busting a gut, and even Jenna herself didn’t know until the morning of rehearsals, was that the writer himself had his appendix removed that same week, but that still didn’t keep him away from Playfest!
