By Bethany Shaffer

Stimulated with caffeine and collaborative inspiration, actors, writers, and directors in theater communities around the world have been organizing and staging 24 hour theater projects for years, but, sadly, the stages of Prague have yet to be christened with this particular brand of creative bonding. Until now, that is.

Anne McDonough, a director and actor, thinks Prague’s theater community is ripe for such an experiment. “The project is a Prague first.” says McDonough. “I saw a 24-hour theatre event in Minneapolis and was blown away by the energy that streamed off the stage. Cramming all of the aspects of producing a play into 24 hours really brings out the best in all the participants. I was looking for a way to bring together the English-language theater community and this project is just the thing.”

Aiming to get artists’ material at its freshest, Prague’s guinea pig 24-Hour Theater Project promises an exciting blend of spontaneity, unadulterated creation and collaboration among a diverse group of artists, many of whom have never worked together before, some who haven’t used their talents in the field of theater before at all.

Local writers, including Alchemy Reading and Performance Series organizer Ken Nash, will be given a packet with 5 elements (anything ranging from an emotion to a specific line), and then retreat for 12 hours to complete their script. By the time they return and hand their scripts over, their part of the process is essentially over and the directors, including The Bear Theater’s David Fisher, and Marc Cram and Aileen Loy of last spring’s “Passion in Prague,” spend the rest of the day rehearsing and blocking with their randomly assigned actors, who will have auditioned beforehand.

The result will be five 5-10 minute long plays, and hopefully a lot of surprises for everyone involved-not only the audience. With any luck, this experiment will inspire more projects of the same breed, as well as bridge more gaps among the creative forces of Prague.

The 24-Hour Theater Project will be unveiled on Sunday, 28 August (a perfect end to an Anti Anti-Fest weekend) at 19:00 at Černá Labuť, 25 Na Poříčí, 8th floor. Tickets to the performance are 150 Kč and are available at the venue.

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