Emily Miller | Reporter
May 1, 2016; 2 p.m.
For the third year in a row Alpha Psi Omega, a theater fraternity for male and female students at Lindenwood University held another successful event.
The 24-hour play event is the event the fraternity looks forward to most. President Mallory Carney explains that ever since the first year the play event has grown significantly.
Photo Credit: Emily Miller
“When we first began we had no one involved, then every year we are getting bigger. Now that we are in the Black Box theater it is a much higher level of production,” said Carney.
Photo Credit: Emily Miller
“We were able to have a deck crew, lighting and sound designers, and board operators,” continued Carney.
This being the third year of the event, it contained the most amount of actors. In total the writers had twenty actors to use for their stories.
The process begins in a 24-hour time span as explained by actor Derick Featherston.
“At seven o’clock on Saturday night a bunch of the creative writing and theater majors meet together and came up with the ideas of the five shows that were performed,” said Featherston.
Then the writers had until 7 a.m. Sunday to have the scripts completely written and finalized.
“They also knew how many people were going to be actors so we came to auditions to be placed in the show,” said Featherston.
At 9:30 a.m. the actors knew what show they were in and then went into rehearsal.
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The actors rehearsed until 11 a.m. or noon and then after a lunch break went straight back into rehearsal.
“This was my first year doing it, and it is a crazy process but it was such a fun experience,” said Featherston.
Every year the show is based a specific theme. The first year was a vague theme, the second year was betrayal, and then this year encompassed the idea of a storm.
“We didn’t really know what to choose and then when the huge thunder storm came in and we decided that would be a cool choice. It worked really well because we were able to have a lot of versatility. It doesn’t have to be a necessarily an actual storm, it could be turmoil in someone’s life for an example,” said Carney.
There were five solo writers and two collaborations. The first story was called Love Me Dead, written by Zachary Alley. The story was about two killers which was very conceptual. There is a dead girl that only one of them can hear and a psychopath is his roommate.
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“This was a storm theme, the sense of turmoil between the roommates,” said Carney.
The second story was called Rain, written by Victoria Muench, and it was about a girl who found out her boyfriend was cheating on her.
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Photo Credit: Emily Miller
“This was an intense scene, in the sense of a storm within the relationship,” said Carney.
The third story was called Little Voices, written by Hannah Pauluhn and it was about a storm of emotions inside someone’s head.
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The fourth story was called Graduation, written by Nicola Muscroft and Andrew Mihalevich which was a literal storm.
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“The play was about graduation coming up the next day and having an end of year party. We had the stereotypical stoner, foreign kid, kid who was confused about his sexuality, and then the awkward one,” said Featherston.
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Lastly, the fifth story was about a man who lost his memory.
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His wife then visited him to revive his memory and at the end of the play he remembers her.
Photo Credit: Emily Miller
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This story was written by Brendan Ochs and DJ Grigsby.
Natalie Krivokuca helped backstage wherever she was needed. She explains how she felt watching the show.
“The feeling when watching it is incredible. Especially when you get to watch and see their process from the development stage. From their first read through to the finished product. It is so much fun because you see the inspiration and the dedication,” said Krivokuca.
Krivokuca also explained that the 24-hour festival has always been something they have wanted to do. “They have to incorporate the theme of storm into every one of their stories,” said Krivokuca.
As this is Carney’s last show event before she graduates in May, she explained that she will miss it but insists the next President will do an amazing job.
“It was my last one but it is a bittersweet moment and the next President will kill it,” said Carney.
