UNR’s Theater and Dance Council put on a “25-hour play festival,” showcasing five plays written by students on April 26 in the Church Fine Arts building.
A 25-hour play is a collection of 10-minute plays that have been written, rehearsed and performed within 25 hours. The actors for each play auditioned April 25 at 6:30 a.m., and the performance started at 7:30 p.m. the following day. Each writer was required to have a beach ball involved somehow and a line “I hope he has a shirt on” in their plays.
Starting off, the festival began with “Washed Ashore,” written by Ria Howard. The play began with a woman, played by Genesis Jessamyn Mahrous Velazquez, being hit in the head with a beachball and getting knocked unconscious. The other woman, played by Peyton Tuley, discovers what she’s done and spirals about what this woman’s life was like before she “took it.” The monologue was comically dramatic and was very well performed, setting the pace for the rest of the plays to come.
The second play, “Everyday for a Summer,” written by Luis Galvez and Benit Hensley, continued the silly energy. A patient, played by Eduardo Arce-Gutierrez, is seen waiting and two “therapists,” played by Ria Howard and Jace Ouchida, walk in without a care in the world. The patient starts talking about the issues he’s having and the therapists hilariously do not care about what he is saying. One of the therapists comes up with a horrible metaphor to try and get this patient out of the room and eventually just leaves the patient all on his own. This play had a little more edge than the previous but nonetheless didn’t fail to make the audience laugh.
“Regretting Your Hero” is everyone’s worst nightmare. The play, written by Sadie Moss Hart, began with a fan who snuck backstage to meet her idol, played by Eduardo Arce-Gutierrez, and instead interacted with the stage manager, played by Peyton Tuley. The idol is incredibly self-centered and forgets people if they aren’t important to him. The fan and the idol introduced themselves three separate times because the idol kept forgetting the fan. The play ends with a surprising plot twist. The stage manager and the fan end up getting together and that’s where it concluded, leaving the audience shocked and amused.
Following was “Watson: A Castaway Hommage,” written by Ryan D. Hartley. This play was exactly as the title said, an homage to the movie “Castaway.” The beachball had the handprint and face, just like Wilson, except the beachball was named Watson. A woman, played by Ria Howard, is stuck on an island and runs into a man, played by Jacob Lewis. The two try to find a way to escape and hilariously break into song, musical theater style. Then emerges Gina Jorts, played by Jordyn Chern, who is singing Regina George’s solo from “World Burn,” a song in the Mean Girls musical. This play was exceptionally done and had perfect comedic timing.
The finale, “Influencers Anonymous,” written by Madison Youngblood, ended the festival on a high note. The leader, played by Ria Howard, is setting up for Influencers Anonymous when three influencers come in one by one. Lex, played by Gady Connor, is an e-boy on TikTok who is very nonchalant and doesn’t care. Marcus, played by Jacob Lewis, is a fitness influencer who is a complete bro. Alexia, played by Peyton Tuley, is a snobby influencer who thinks she’s better than everyone. Watching the different kinds of characters interact was beyond entertaining and the plot twist, the group leader becoming an influencer again and creating an influencer house, was well executed and very amusing to see.
Each writer and every actor did such a fantastic job with such a short amount of time to prepare. The plays were all amusing and entertaining in their own way, giving the audience a variety of stories and never failing to make the audience laugh.
Opinions expressed in The Nevada Sagebrush are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily express the views of The Sagebrush or its staff. Vanessa Navratil is a student at the University of Nevada studying Journalism. She can be reached at emilyhess@sagebrush.unr.edu.
