When Tanner Collier first heard about the “Insomniac’s Play Festival” last year, he was intrigued.
He was scheduled to work on the night auditions are held and decided to audition by video, rather than in-person.
“I picked up a magazine and recorded myself reading an article,” Collier said. “Then I sent it to directors and got cast.”
Blake Coker | Argonaut
Collier is now the treasurer of the Cornerstone Theatre Troupe, a student-operated theater collective that hosts the event.
He said auditions are not only open to everyone, but there are also no required audition materials.
While Collier auditioned with a video, Corner Stone Theatre Troupe President, Shalonia Rosen, said it’s not the most unusual audition she’s seen. She said she has seen students audition for the festival by singing opera covers of rap songs or by simply standing on stage and eating a sandwich.
The event, formerly known as the “24 Hour Theatre Festival,” challenges students to write and produce a play in 24 hours.
“We get a handful of directors and writers and they show up to the theater at 7 o’ clock,” Rosen said. “The first night, they pull challenges out of a hat — last year, my challenges were I had to have a mountain in the play and someone had to stab their eyes out Oedipus Rex style.”
Collier said the teams of directors and writers are set up before the event and the challenges are predetermined by the Cornerstone Theatre Troupe board and class representatives.
Although board members that participate in the festival may know of what challenges exist, Collier said the selection of challenges are completely random.
Collier, who participated in the festival as an actor last year, said he looks forward to writing one of the plays.
“There’s one challenge I don’t want to get, but only because I don’t know how it will work on the stage,” Collier said.
Once writers and directors have chosen their challenges, Rosen said the doors open and auditions begin.
“Once auditions are done, everyone who auditioned is placed in a show,” Rosen said. “The writers go home and write all night and it’s due to us at 5:30 in the morning.”
Rosen said the plays are required to be no more than 15 pages, which is about 10 minutes in length. After the scripts have been written, she said all students involved in the festival meet up at 7 a.m. and begin rehearsing the plays.
“We have coffee and bagels so they don’t die,” Rosen said. “We all meet and go over the logistics of how it’s going to work and we send them off to rehearse.”
Although the event is hectic, Rosen said she finds the experience worth the work.
“When Cornerstone started, we wanted to give an outlet for students to see what they could create,” Rosen said. “If you can create a play in 24 hours and put as much work as possible into that 24 hours, imagine if we keep that same dedication and spread it out in our other shows — imagine what we could do.”
Collier said he is particularly excited for this year’s festival because of the enthusiasm of the writers and directors involved in the event.
“The directors and writers this year are so, so very enthusiastic about what we’re going to be putting on,” Collier said. “It’s a really cool experience to introduce yourself to.”
Auditions for the “Insomniacs Play Festival” begin at 7:30 p.m., Friday, September 30 at the Forge Theatre. The plays will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to audition. All students who audition will be cast. Tickets are $3 and proceeds go to the Cornerstone Theatre Troupe.
Corrin Bond
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