Grand Haven’s drama club put on a special, first time event that requests any individual to stop by and stay. On Friday, Mar. 10, a prototype of a show was in motion. Orchestrated and set up by Rita McClary, English teacher and theatre educator. This event is one of a kind and has not been done before, the pressure is high, and the excitement is even higher.

The one of a kind spectacle event was conducted and shown on, Saturday, Mar. 11, at 7pm. The event itself only lasted about a half hour, however McClary

“The 24-hour theatre project is sponsored by the drama club and is organized and run by the drama club officers,” McClary said. “The idea of it is that within that 24-hour period, you have a group come together to write, act, block, design, tech, and achieve an entire performance, in 24 hours.”

The ideal of this project is a devising theatre, that can have people cooperate under stress of

creating something in such a short amount of time. Planning through and high social cooperation is the plan and have it be thrown together to have the play produced and ran the next day.

“It’s a type of creation that leads to a lot of adrenaline and excitement, but it’s sort of like a rough draft of a paper!” McClary said, “You really don’t know what you’re going to get, until you get it and so that makes it kind of a rush for the kids involved.”

As exciting how the whole scenario sounds, 24 hours straight seems a little overkill to some. However, those fellow theatricals didn’t have to endure a full overnight practice McClary assured. The event will began Friday after school and stopped at 9pm. Then began again the next day and have the actual performance in the evening.

“It still counts as 24 hours, but we’re just taking a sleep break,” McClary said. “I’m excited to see what the high school will do with the 24-hour project it really will depend on what kind of kids show up, what they’re ideas will be for a script, what do they want to explore in writing and acting, and how they want to divvy up the jobs.”

For the main course, the film delivered a unique mixture of comedy and murder mystery. McClary didn’t play a role in production, writing, and creation. Allowing the students freedom to do whatever for the play to the extent of appropriateness.

“They decided if they wanted to do a murder mystery but wanted it to be enough of a comedy that it could still be funny to the audience,” McClary said. “I am there of course, but I am trying to hold back because I don’t want to be negative, like, let’s just see what they do, and it was just amazing. The kids were just so excited to write the script, they all threw out scenarios, characters, situations and just be really great about collaborating.”

The uniqueness of the project is wholly, and rolls in a well rounded amount of fun for those joining for the first time, and the audience experiencing something unique in such a short timeframe.

“Unlike a regular production, all those questions are answered. None of those questions are answered here.” McClary said.