The 48 Hour Theatre Challenge proved to be a fun and successful weekend attracting 19 attendees from as far away as Lawrence and Kaitangata. It was exciting to see so many new faces as well as our Society members participating. Our Theatre Ambassador (Zac Henry) was able to move between the groups to help as necessary.

 

The Challenge was open to people aged from 11 years and six teams registered including one solo performer. Each team had to select three prompts. These were placed in three hats and teams had to draw out a prompt from each hat. This was the framework that their sketch had to be written around. The prompts were -

• Convention - specific style to be included in the play e.g. slow motion, split focus, flashback/flash forward, narration, freeze frame, soliloquy or spoken thought etc.

• Prop  -  e.g. piggy bank, hat, knife, flowers, trophy, walking stick etc

• Quote - e.g. ' back in my day'.  'Is it a bird? Is it a plane?' etc 

 

A fourth hat was provided with different quotes for juniors.

 

Each group then set about creating their scripts. Writing the sketches from the prompts drawn out of the hats proved to be both taxing and hilarious. There was certainly lots of laughter as possible story lines were explored after which plots were finalised and characters established.  Rehearsals were mainly top secret and the Sunday concert was the first time that many attendees were able to see what the other teams had created. The standard was very high, with some very fine acting and incredibly varied story lines. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the weekend with the concert on Sunday evening drawing an audience of approximately 30 supporters.