Texas A&M students transformed chaos into creativity by writing, designing and performing a play in the span of 24 hours earlier this semester.
Seven students devised and performed the play “Witching Hour ’75” on Sept. 13 in the Black Box Theater in the Liberal Arts and Arts & Humanities Building for the inaugural 24-Hour Theatre Festival.
With guidance from the Theatre program’s George McConnell, Ph.D., associate professor; and Mike Poblete, Ph.D., instructional assistant professor; students were tasked with creating a play without a script. McConnell said the event provides an opportunity for students to build community around theatre.
“Sure, they could go to a party or go have lunch, or they could make theatre together,” McConnell said. “In just 24 hours, students who didn’t even know each other have made art together.”
Students were required to include a practical lighting cue and a specific choreographed pose. The students also had to incorporate “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles as inspiration.
The play takes place at a house party in 1975. Three women, hoping to invite fun guests, summon a witch from the Salem witch trials.
Alexis Caccitolo, a sophomore Visualization student, played Stacy, an unwanted party guest. She described the hours leading up to the performance as hectic.
“For the first six hours, we were just thinking of the story. But it was really important to us that it made sense, and it had a sort of good bones,” she said. “We can get the acting and stuff done, but we wanted to be sure the audience could follow it all the way to the end.”
Around midnight, the students split up into script-writing and blocking groups. Some went home to get a few hours of rest, while others took breaks sleeping in the Black Box Theater.
“We woke back up around 5 a.m., and while someone was working on the script here, someone else was figuring out their costume there,” she said. “Everyone was always doing something, and I was able to find time to be able to go back and freshen up before the show.”
The cast wrote an original song and designed lights, costumes and a set.
At showtime, the audience was encouraged to respond to certain words. At the mention of “Stacy,” the audience said “dun, dun, dunnn.” Miniature candle tea lights were distributed, and audience members flickered the lights when a cast member said “trick.” And when The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” played, the audience members danced along with it.
Several students outside of the cast created designs for the play’s posters and playbills with direction from John Boran, M.F.A., instructional assistant professor in the Visualization program.
“It’s like, literally, you condense every single aspect of a production down into a single day,” Caccitolo said. “I really enjoyed the hustle and bustle of being backstage and practicing, and it’s a great opportunity also for people who want to dip their toes into theatre.”
Poblete said the students showed their commitment throughout and performed a well-rounded play. Though their time was limited, Poblete said the students embraced the messiness of it all.
“It’s not something that had to be polished,” Poblete said. “But it’s a great way for students to meet people and have fun experiencing theatre in this way.”
“Witching Hour ’75” was devised by Payton Stutts, a freshman Theatre student; Kate Bertagnoli, a junior Theatre student; Shelby Rettmann, a junior Accounting student; Kylie Brittain, a junior Performance and Visual Studies student; and Caccitolo.
Rochelle Lopez, a sophomore Theatre student, served as the director and lighting designer.
Micaela Delgado, a freshman in Meteorology, was stage manager and sound designer. Bertagnoli served as prop master.
Graphic designers included Alessandra Balassa Toussaint, junior in Performance and Visual Studies; Mackenzie Gunnink, junior in Visualization; Aarya Kanuru, senior in Statistics; Abbie Marcionetti, freshman in Visualization; Alicia Martinez, senior in Visualization; and Erica Mueller, senior in Visualization. Set and costumes were provided by D’Mya Tabron, costume shop manager, and Jeff Watson, theatre facility coordinator.
