For a quarter-century, The 24 Hour Plays have challenged theater-makers to attempt the impossible: write, rehearse and perform six brand-new plays in a single day. What began as an experiment in 1995 has become a beloved institution, a rite of passage for performers, and an annual gala that draws talent from theater, film, television, comedy and music.
But this year marks a first — the flagship fall event is moving across the river. After 24 editions in Manhattan, the 25th Annual 24 Hour Plays will take place at The Space at Irondale in Fort Greene on Dec. 12.
“It’s the same event — the same 24 Hour Plays people know and love — but in Brooklyn,” Artistic Director Mark Armstrong told Brooklyn Paper.
For Brooklyn audiences unfamiliar with the adrenaline-fueled tradition, Armstrong offered a simple explanation: “These are plays that are written, rehearsed and performed in 24 hours.”
That sentence describes a whirlwind process that begins the night before, when six writers, six directors and 24 actors meet for the first time. After introductions, the writers dive into an overnight writing session. Scripts are due at 6 a.m., Armstrong said, but “more often than not, you have to gently let people know that it’s time to wrap it up because printing and copying have to start.”
In the morning, actors gather for breakfast and the highly anticipated casting reveal. Then they scatter into six rehearsal rooms across Irondale and nearby studios, shaping worlds that did not exist before sunrise. Armstrong notes that choices must be made quickly as the company cycles through line memorization, costume and prop requests, tech, and finally a communal dinner before the curtain rises.
“It’s exciting and stressful and vulnerable,” Armstrong said. “These artists can just focus on this thing they’ve agreed to do, which is rehearse and memorize on stage and completely perform off book in front of a big audience.”
A community-building pressure cooker
Why do so many performers — famous and emerging alike — line up for such a daunting challenge?
“People beg to do this,” Armstrong said. “Really, really famous people because a friend of theirs has told them, ‘Oh, I did this thing and it was so much fun.’”
This year’s performers include Elaine Hendrix (“The Parent Trap”), Ralph Macchio (“The Karate Kid”), Kirsten Vangsness (“Criminal Minds”), Havana Rose Liu (“Bottoms”) and Jaboukie Young-White (“The Daily Show”).
Returning artists include Olli Haaskivi (“Oppenheimer”) and Morgan Siobhan Green (“Hadestown”), both veterans who said the event offers creative freedom rarely found in their day-to-day work.
“As an actor, you are often cast in the most logical way that you can be cast,” Haaskivi told Brooklyn Paper. “There’s something about the 24 Hour Plays where anything can happen; it feels high pressure because it has to happen very quickly, but it’s also incredibly low pressure because it’s just this one time ever.”
One of his most vivid memories comes from performing at the Los Angeles edition. After he and fellow actor Zoë Chao exited the stage following a grueling day, “She and I hugged silently off stage and did not let each other go, laughing so hard for several minutes,” he recalled. “It was just like the release of all this stress and exhaustion.”
Haaskivi has also formed lasting artistic relationships through the event — most notably with Jesse Eisenberg, who has written roles specifically for him.
“I said I wanted to be part of a heist, and [Eisenberg] wrote me a heist,” he laughed.
Green first came to the event through the equally chaotic 24 Hour Musicals, both writing and performing.
“There really is a loop of emotions in the day,” she said. “You don’t have time to think too much.” That urgency, she said, uncovers artistic bravery that mainstream theater sometimes suppresses.
“The thing I love about the 24 Hour Plays,” Green said, “it really can make a place where something you didn’t really have in you is born.”
As a performer, she recalled receiving a script with a serious solo without yet having heard the melody. Panic set in as noon approached with no demo in sight. But when the music finally began at the performance, “I was like, here we go,” she said.
“To this day, that was probably one of the best performances I’ve ever done because I just couldn’t think about it,” Green continued.
As a writer, she partnered with Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R. Jackson, writer of Broadway’s “A Strange Loop,” and laughed about the underestimation of time in the writers’ room.
“They had to tell us, you guys have to go,” she said.
Why Brooklyn, and why now?
Armstrong, a Brooklynite of more than 20 years, said the decision to bring the gala to Irondale felt natural.
“I love Brooklyn,” he said. “The theater community and the NYC community are such a presence there already.”
And for every Manhattanite who thinks Fort Greene is too far, Armstrong added, “There will be another person who will say, whoa, that’s even closer to my house.”
The new venue also gives the night a festive spirit, taking place just before the holidays. Armstrong jokingly dubbed the night “Holiday in Brooklyn” — a tagline some mistakenly assumed meant a reinvention.
“I was just trying to say, hey, it’s Dec. 12, Happy Holidays, everyone. This is our regular show, only it’s in this other borough now,” Armstrong laughed.
With just three full-time staff members and a mission centered on creative collaboration, The 24 Hour Plays operates as both a theater company and a service organization, helping artists make meaningful new connections under wild circumstances.
And regardless of venue, the performances remain a true one-night-only act.
“It’s the first day of rehearsal, opening night and closing night — all in the same day,” Armstrong said.
For more information about The 24 Hour Plays and tickets to the 25th Annual event on Dec. 12 at The Space at Irondale in Fort Greene, visit 24hourplays.com.
