Central Michigan Life

Issue date: 1/14/08 Section: News

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There was no sleep in sight for 10 playwrights who stayed awake for nearly 24 hours creating six one-act plays for Alpha Psi Omega's EXTREME Play Blitz.

In 20 hours, 33 creative minds came together to write, direct and perform six one-act plays. The plays were performed at 6 p.m. Saturday in Moore 102, also known as The Platform.

"Worse comes to worse, I'll just drink a lot of Red Bull," said Midland resident Daniel Czarnecki.

Students began the process at 10 p.m. Friday night.

Eric Sprott, president of the theatre fraternity, said the play blitz adds a huge twist to the traditional writing process.

"(The time crunch) is what we thrive on," said the Bruce Crossing senior. "It's gets the creative juices flowing."

Emily Hawkes, secretary of Alpha Psi Omega and Berkley senior, said the play blitz is a great way to get more people involved in theater. She said a lot of people don't get parts in CMU plays, so this is a good opportunity for them to gain experience.

Sprott said there are a few stipulations in the play writing process. The writers were given a noun and a line of dialogue along with a word and the number of times they must use it in the play.

All of these things were put on pieces of paper by the participants, and then drawn out of hats by the writers, he said.

In one play, the word exponential was used 11 times.

The only thing the writers knew ahead of time was how many actors they would have and their genders, Hawkes said.

Sprott said the final catch was that each act had a mystery prop assigned to them, and in this case it was a big bouncy ball that lit up.

Sprott said he has never heard of any other school performing the play blitz.

The actors had from 8 a.m., when the writers presented their plays, until performance time to practice and perfect them.

The first half of practice was about learning the scripts and the blocking, and the second half was rehearsing the lines and movement without the script, said Livonia junior Wendy Krekeler, who performed in an act titled "The Last Pirate."

The Platform was packed full Saturday night. Audience members watched actors crawling on the floor in the dark with flashlights, being beat up with bouncy balls and being seduced by nurses named "Dr. Feelgood."

Columbus, Mich. sophomore Chris Jablonowski said there were some really odd moments, but he thought the writing was good.

"You can write some really interesting things between 10 (p.m.) and 8 in the morning," he said.


news@cm-life.com

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