They call it \u201cthe extreme sports of theatre.\u201d With 24 hours from blank page to premiere, Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre\u2019s official name for the event, \u201c24-Hour Miracle,\u201d is also a pretty accurate description.<\/p>\n
At 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, the participants gathered. All four directors put a theme into a hat. The last theme to emerge was the winner, in this case \u201c#badombres,\u201d a reference to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump calling some Mexican immigrants \u201cbad hombres\u201d in the last presidential debate. Afterwards, #badombre trended on social media \u2014 an ombre is a kind of dye job. 24-Hour Miracle\u2019s four plays took both spellings as inspiration.<\/p>\n
The four writers got to work, with a deadline 12 hours later. Mike Christenson, who the day before had tied for second place in Woosh Kinaadeiy\u00ed\u2019s 6th annual grand poetry slam, likely wins the award for least sleep. It had been 40 hours since he\u2019d gotten any, he said on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
Allison Holtkamp, a member of Juneau\u2019s new stand-up comedy group Club Baby Seal, participated for the first time.<\/p>\n
She decided to focus on the \u201combre\u201d over \u201chombre.\u201d When she got home and began typing, her script started out based in a hair salon. Problem was, she thought it a boring setting. Things got interesting, however, when she switched it to an abandoned amusement park, with two fortune-seekers looking for Nora \u2014 a fortune-telling parrot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like this is what happens in the middle of the night,\u201d Holtkamp said. \u201cThings really get weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the world of theatre (and outside it too), weird makes for fun. Around 18 hours after Holtkamp first typed the word \u201cparrot,\u201d director Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs sat in Centennial Hall, gluing feathers to a mask.<\/p>\n
It was her first time directing, she said, though she\u2019s acted on Perseverance Theatre\u2019s second stage and has always liked the idea of the 24-Hour Miracle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like you\u2019re signing up to bring \u2018Hamlet\u2019 to life,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to get my foot back in there, too.\u201d Looking at the mask, she added, \u201cLet\u2019s hope all the glue sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though they may not have worn feather masks, each play featured its own struggles and quirky characters. Danny Peterson\u2019s \u201cThe Victim,\u201d directed by Mike LeVine and acted by Aaron Lopez, Jay Jay Houck, and Amy O\u2019Neill Houck, featured a \u201cbad hombre,\u201d a nonviolent therapist, and the victim\u2019s quirky solution to his bullying.<\/p>\n
Christenson\u2019s \u201cThe Curse of the Recursive Curse\u201d featured a love triangle with many, many permutations as Wes Adkins, a time-machine-inventing scientist and \u201cbad hombre,\u201d travels back and forth in time \u2014 and into slightly different dimensions \u2014 killing different versions of himself and pursuing love disastrously, and hilariously. (Bryan Crowder directed and Rain Barrett and Apryle McVey starred as Adkins\u2019 wife and fellow scientist\/love interest.)<\/p>\n
Richard Carter and Heather LaVerne\u2019s \u201cElevated,\u201d directed by Julia O\u2019Connor and acted by Theo Houck, Tobie Weston and Katie Bachman, featured the stymied honeymoon of high school sweethearts stuck in an elevator with an old lady whose nickname is \u201cBaby Ruth\u201d \u2014 complete with a spectacular drugged out slo-mo elevator dancing scene and a ukulele. All the plays made for some improbable, and hilarious, situations.<\/p>\n
JDLT board secretary Stacy Katasse has produced the event for the last three years. Katasse and LaVerne drove all over town on Saturday getting prop lists, costume lists, and sound lists (LaVerne also ended up doing sound), raiding Brown Boots Costume Company, and putting together the programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point of the event plays to JDLT\u2019s mission, which is \u2014 essentially it is to get people involved in theatre that might not have other opportunities,\u201d Katasse said. \u201cWe have a great professional theatre in town where people can go who have honed their craft. Theatre in the Rough is another great company theatre in town\u2026 We at JDLT try to fulfill the role of the more relaxed environment. And that\u2019s the strength of this event, is our actors only need to give us 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish that I would have participated before this,\u201d Holtkamp said. \u201cI hope that even more people participate in the years to come, because it\u2019s really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n