To begin the new year, Red Bird Productions conducted their annual 24-Hour Play Festival where all theater company members, as well as student volunteers, came together to produce nine plays within a day. On Jan. 16, immediately after school ended, participants met in the auditorium to discover who was going to be a writer, actor, director and part of the tech crew. These roles and their schedules were a complete mystery to everyone, apart from the theatre officers, prior to the meeting.

Friday, Jan. 16:

4-5 p.m.

Juniors Eden Wilson and Miley Nguyen and senior Jay Stanfield discuss the festival schedule and groups after the reveal. The company stayed after school until around 5:15 to find out their parts and discuss the rules of the event. Going straight home, writers began their long process of drafting a play while the actors and directors went to sleep.

By 6 a.m., writers needed to have their scripts sent in to the company directors. Thirty minutes later, the group directors arrived at school and fought over which script they were each going to direct.

Saturday, Jan. 17:

8 a.m.

Junior Alex Millward and senior Rianah Patel look over and begin rehearsing their scripts in the academic hallway. The two acted in “You can be a Hero” written by junior Audrey Lawrence and directed by junior Benjahmin BarreraKelly. At this time, each of the nine groups were rehearsing at their designated spots throughout the school.

9 a.m.

Sophomore Violet Bradley rummages through the costume closet to secure an outfit to best depict her character, Gilbert. Bradley acted in “I Want to Watch the World Burn,” written by senior Mariana De La Torre and directed by senior Emily Brams.

Each group received a 10-minute time slot between 9:30 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. to scavenge for costume pieces and props to use in their play.

10 a.m.

Junior Aaliyah Bridges portrays Victoria, a social media star filming a new video in a haunted house, in “What’s Scarier Than Ghosts,” written by senior Margot Rozowski and directed by junior Sierra Little. Amy, played by junior Makaylah Barrientos, and Jasmine, played by freshman Ace Minton, were featured in Victoria’s video, guiding her through the house.

After they read their scripts and went through their acts, all participants were released for lunch at 11:30 a.m.

1:30 p.m.

From 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., the technicians run through the lighting, sound effects and logistics of each play. While the technicians worked with one group, the others continued to rehearse their own in their designated spots.

2 p.m.

Kick Flipster, played by junior Charleigh DeArman in junior and director Davis Adams’ play “Mary Poppins 360°,” falls into the aisle of the auditorium after he attempts to perform a new, self-created skateboarding trick. After he failed to perform the trick and majorly injured himself, Kick Flipster was recorded and humiliated on SoCalWipeouts.net.

3 p.m.

Sophomore Riley Gribbons plays a teen in the early 2000’s in “The Four 4D Rotary Telephones,” written by junior Sophie Tang and directed by junior Kalyani Gifford. The act featured women from three different periods of time communicating by three different rotary phones.

Each group was assigned a prop they must incorporate into their play. The groups made use of a variety of objects, like bones, candles, a sword, a tire, shopping carts with a bunny puppet, an umbrella, Pandora’s box and ladders.

“As soon as I saw that my prop was four rotary telephones, I immediately thought of something along the lines of time travel or ghosts,” Tang said. “However, because there was a play last year by Belsey Ferguson that also had a rotary telephone prop and was used to communicate with a ghost, I didn’t want my play to be similar to that. So, I chose to go with the time travel plot instead.”

4 p.m.

Bradley, junior Ray Martinez and freshman Elena Wolinsky finish their dinner by the library. The break for dinner started at 4 p.m. and ended at 4:45 p.m., marking the end of tech rehearsals.

6 p.m.

Senior Daniel Percy leads the warm-up circle right before the show begins. By this point, everyone was fully dressed, with makeup and hair done for their plays.

“A big issue sometimes in our 24-hour plays can be that a lot of people aren’t loud enough, because a lot of people are acting for the first time, so I took the opportunity to really go in with a lot of projection warmups,” said Percy. “I really wanted to bring home the feeling of togetherness and community that brought me to join theatre in the first place. Some of my friends hyped me up and even sang with me, and I really started to feel the joy of community again.”

7 p.m.

Tyler, played by junior Quillan Thermond, shows off his trophy for acting following a time-skip period where three of the four actors had been initiating their independent careers in “The Broadway Club,” written by freshman Amelia Trevino and directed by Stanfield. This moment placed the three award winners in the background while the one actor who did not follow in their footsteps monologued in the foreground.