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 The coffee-fueled benefit performance of "The 24 Hour Plays" was
held at the American Airlines Theatre, an annual event in which more
than two dozen actors — this time including Jesse Tyler Ferguson,
James McAvoy, Jason Biggs and Zachary Levi — teamed up with six
writers and six directors to write and rehearse a half-dozen plays
over a single day. The event raised $500,000.
The six playwrights were David Lindsay-Abaire, Jonathan Marc
Sherman, Lynn Nottage, Theresa Rebeck, Rachel Axler and Devin Mojica,
a sophomore from New York University who earlier won a spot.
Some of the other stars who showed up included David Cross, Gina
Gershon, Sasha Alexander, Rachel Dratch, Rosie Perez, Diane Neal,
Carmen Ejogo, Tim Daly, Anthony Mackie, Jordin Sparks, Michael
Kenneth Williams, Bryan Greenberg, Josh Lucas, Jay Pharoah, Ben
Shenkman, Krysta Rodriguez and Maggie Q.
They were asked to audition with a prop and a costume, both of which
often found their way into the final play. Frequently the actors
wanted to show another side. Natalie Dormer asked not to play her
usual seductress, and so was cast as an assassin. Another actor
wanted to die onstage and a third suggested he might like to be a
murderer. Four people oddly brought clown props.
There was a cramming-for-college-finals feel about the venue in the
hours before the show, with actors busy tweaking their lines and
bonding over catered food or lounging about. The fact that several
were "Saturday Night Live" veterans — Dratch, Pharoah and Taran
Killam — seemed to help their moods. "I have a knack for retention,"
Killam said.
Although Lucas stunningly shaved his beard onstage, the evening
belonged to Cross, a veteran of five previous shows. The comedian
appeared in the last four plays uttering a single line: "Oh, come
on. It's just milk." He explained that he didn't have time to commit
all day this year but managed to get lured onboard if he did just a
walk-on.
"That's what it is for me: meeting celebrities," Cross deadpanned
backstage. "I just don't get the opportunity to meet and chitchat —
just small talk. I don't want to talk about anything substantive.
Just small talk with celebrities is kind of my thing."
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The playwrights gathered at 10 p.m. Sunday and each wrote a
10-minute play by 7 a.m. Monday. The celebrity actors then were
picked by the playwrights taking turns and rehearsed the work for
the next 12 hours. At 8 p.m., the plays were performed for a live
audience. With only a few hours to rehearse, some performances were
a little ragged but ad-libbing and helpful co-stars aided the
dialogue.
Most were comedies, including a psychotherapist session that ended
up with nun chucks being waved about, and another in which three
cats turned on their owner.
This is the event's 13th year in New York and it has lately branched
out to Los Angeles.
The one-night-only show benefits the Urban Arts Partnership, an
organization that brings arts education into New York City
classrooms. The play project is backed by German luxury pen maker
Montblanc, which has helped fund the project for eight years, as
well as the Montblanc Young Writers Program.
"It takes a lot of guts. You never know what's going to happen,"
said Jan Patrick Schmitz, Montblanc's North America CEO. "I think
the actors and playwrights realize that it's such a creative and
unique process. To be part of it is such a great experience. You see
the great skills and camaraderie. At the end, the audience has a
highly creative experience."
___
Online:
http://www.24hourplays.com/
http://www.urbanarts.org/
[Associated
Press; MARK KENNEDY]
Mark Kennedy can be
reached at
http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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