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The 24 Hour Plays

Jun 19, 2006 Mike Mackenzie

The Soulpepper Theatre Company, in conjunction with The 24 Hour Play Company, will be presenting a new twist as part of their summer season - The 24 Hour Plays.

Picture this. Six of Canada's leading playwrights: Morris Panych, Michael Healey, Susan Coyne, Matthew Edison, Adam Pettle, and Soulpepper Academy member Nicolas Billon will be presented with 24 actors, each holding a prop of their own choosing at 10 o'clock pm. At sunrise the next morning, the playwrights will submit their new 10-minute plays, which will then be rehearsed in the morning, led by six prominent directors - Leah Cherniak, Ted Dykstra, Diego Matamoros, Laszlo Marton, Joseph Ziegler, and Academy Artist Weyni Mengesha. That afternoon they will work out the technical requirements of each play, and then, that evening at 8pm, each of these new plays will be presented for the first time for a live audience. Sound exciting? It sure does.

Combine that with the wonderful cast which includes Damian Atkins, Kevin Bundy, Patricia Fagan, Michael Hanrahan, C. David Johnson, Jeff Lilico, Kristina Nicoll, Nancy Palk, Brenda Robins, Robyn Stevan, William Webster and the Soulpepper Academy Artists Michael Blake, Stephen Guy-McGrath, Kevin MacDonald, Mike Ross, Jennifer Villaverde, Sarah Wilson and d'bi young, and it will surely be a theatrical event not to be missed.

The 24 Hour Play Company, founded in 1995 in New York City, has presented over 300 plays over the years, and this is its first collaboration with the Soulpepper Theatre Company.

This is an exciting new venture for the company, and the official launch of the Soulpepper Academy, which is Canada's only year-round paid residency for young theatre artists in all disciplines. The Academy features 10 artists from across the country, and they will focus on Ensemble Performance, Verse Performance, Multi-media Performance, Collective Creation, and Community Leadership while working with many of the professional artists associated with Soulpepper.

"The 24 Hour Plays" will be performed at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District (55 Mill Street) on Sunday, June 25 at 8 pm. Tickets for the evening are $54 (plus a handling fee). $18 rush tickets and $5 Youth Rush tickets (must be 21 or under) will go on sale 15 minutes before curtain, subject to availability (in person, cash only). Tickets may be purchased through the Young Centre Box Office at 416.866.8666, and more information is available at Soulpepper's Website.

The copyright of the article The 24 Hour Plays in Modern World Theatre is owned by Mike Mackenzie. Permission to republish The 24 Hour Plays in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.