24-hour play put on by Concordia’s Curtain Club a “fun” combination of superheroes and chaos

The cast and crew take a bow to applause from the audience.

Photo credit: Elizabeth Salo

By Elizabeth Salo

Hilarity and laughter ensued in Thom Auditorium during the performance of the Curtain Club’s annual 24-Hour Play on Saturday at 6:15 p.m. The goal of the 24-Hour Play is for students to write, produce, practice and perform an original play, all within the span of 24 hours.

Curtain Club President junior Jason Church explained that this has been a Concordia tradition for several years.

“This is something that we have done as long as I’ve been here,” he said. “I’m sure it existed before I got here, but it’s really just a bit of a creative exercise, seeing if we can write a play and then direct it, act it, memorize it, and then put on a show, all in the span of 24 hours.”

Church said that the participants typically break the steps of the play production into parts to streamline the process.

Chaos Boy (Aydan Toth, left) destroys the city. Photo: Elizabeth Salo.

“Writers write for about five-ish hours, and then they meet with the director and talk about the script, and then the actors arrive, and they start working around two in the morning,” said Church. “And then they grind away rehearsing, getting props, costumes, set pieces, all that stuff for a few hours. They usually take some sort of break in between…then it all comes together at the end. We met specifically for this one at around [5 p.m.] to add the superhero effects.”

The play centered around a somewhat clumsy superhero, Super Power, played by freshman Onyx Stone, as she battles Chaos Boy, played by freshman Aydan Toth, and uncovers an evil plot with the assistance of her manager, Kara.

Freshman Maddie Kearns played Kara, and she said that she thought the show went well overall.

“I don’t think we really had many issues; I think everything went pretty well,” said Kearns.

Members of the audience also said they enjoyed the play.

“I thought it was great,” said freshman audience member Jasmine Baker. “I find it amazing that they were able to put all this together in just 24 hours.”

Richard Tyranneous (Sam Olson, right) shoots Kara (not pictured) while Super Power looks on (Onyx Stone, left). Photo: Elizabeth Salo.

“I thought the play was a lot of fun,” said Aleksa Chambers, a junior audience member. “I really appreciated the extra costumes. I really liked Chaos Boy’s costume, and the kind of stereotypical superhero tropes…It’s kind of crazy how they come up with these complex plots in 24 hours.”

The play was performed by Onyx Stone as Super Power/Penelope, Maddie Kearns as Kara, Aydan Toth as Chaos Boy/Theodore Tyrraneous and the Barista, and sophomore Sam Olson as Richard Tyrraneous and the News Reporter.

The play was written by junior Mi-Ree Zwick, junior Jason Church, junior Marieka Kaufman, and junior Claire Horacek, and it was directed by freshman Mary Pieper.