Hello everyone!
October 20th and 21st have been some of the best days of my life, which is not something I say very often. To explain it is impossible, only those present could truly experience the magic that happen in MCC's Forum over 24 hours.
What I can explain is how the event works. MCC's 6th Act organization was formed to connect the Theater and English departments to give students a unique learning experience. Click here to visit their webpage and learn more about what they do.
This event, the 24 Hour Play Bake-Off, Bake-Off for short, takes place from 7PM Friday to 7PM Saturday, where plays are written and performed within 24 hours. Actors, directors, and playwrights enter the Forum at 7PM Friday night so the actors can "audition" their costume to the playwrights. Once that's done, everyone leaves except the playwrights, the event organizer and play director Maria Brandt, and Jeremy Case, who takes care of the technology for the show. It's decided on which playwrights will have which actors, and the playwrights have until 6AM to write their play. Maria goes home to get some sleep and make copies of the scripts so the directors can meet at 7AM to read the scripts and decide who will be directing which play. Then the actors arrive at 9AM to start rehearsing. By 7PM Saturday, the actors have memorized their blocking and lines, and the plays are ready to be performed. The performances can last between an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how long the plays are and how long the award presentation runs. These awards are more so for fun, and are given by different people each year.
I've added a video of my play from last year because while I'm not super proud of the writing, my actors did an amazing job.
In short, the reason I’m not fond of last year’s play is simply because I didn’t give it enough attention. I ended up with two actors I wasn’t sure how to work with, and came up with something quickly so I could leave. I had fun writing with the other playwrights, and made a friend because of it. But I knew I could do better. I wanted to offer the option to watch the play so a comparison can be made in quality.
Here is this year's play, one I'm very proud of.
The rest of the post will document the writing journey of this play, because I want to persevere the good energy this play has. I also didn't want to spoil the play by explaining the play before presenting the video.
7PM, October 20th 2023
I enter the Forum at 6:55PM because of traffic. After everyone has gathered and the directors and playwrights have introduced themselves, Maria directs the 17 actors to show off their costumes, props, and tell us about their skills. The most memorable moment was when one actor came up and asked Maria why she wasn’t recognizing him. She asked what he meant, and he insisted for quite some time that she’d taught him English in high school. Most people in the room know Maria doesn’t teach high school, so this was very funny. We were all very confused until it got cleared up. But for my part, what stuck with me was one of the actors. I’m going to use letters to represent them, since I’m unsure how much they want their names on the internet. The actor, B, went last. I know B from my sci-fi literature class last semester, and my fantasy literature class this semester, but I had no idea he was also in theater. He was roped into this by one of the playwrights, who I’ll called C for privacy as well, last minute with stuff C had in his closet. B, of course, had no idea what to do with himself, so he said, and I quote from my notes: “I’m the worst person to run into at Comic-Con, and a reject Batman villain.” Then he showed us this small plush cat which is named “Spice Waffle.”
In that moment I knew I wanted to work with B, as long as C hadn’t promised to with him already. Spoilers, he hadn’t.
8PM
Around this time the actors went home to sleep. Now was time to pick actors, and I made sure I had B. Then I picked two other actors who had full costumes, L and S. All I knew at that time was we were going to New York Comic-Con (NYCC), and it was going to be wild.
With that in mind, I grabbed some snacks (don’t worry, we all got fed), and stared at a blank page on my document. I sat there, unsure what the heck I was going to do. I started thinking about my first reaction to B’s costume. A black hat covered in colorful buttons and a cape. And Spice Waffle. I had Spice Waffle too, who I knew had to be a character. I thought for a moment and said to myself: Button Lord and Spice Waffle.
L was dressed in a costume which was hospital scrubs covered in blood, had a sword belonging to a character called Cloud from the Final Fantasy franchise, and had done blood makeup all over his face. He’s very good with makeup. S was dressed in a Star Wars Sith Lord costume, including a lightsaber that made a humming sound. The color could be chosen, although it had to be physically changed, so I let S pick whichever color he wanted. I had to work with these two, and S was in the perfect costume for NYCC. L though, I had to figure that one out. After going back and forth for some time, I decided that L would play a real murderer who'd escaped from an insane asylum. I decided that S would be a content creator, doing silly videos where he "arrested" criminals against the Empire.
Here are the character descriptions I wrote for my actors:
Asher
An actual mental hospital patient who was admitted because he’s a murderer who pleaded insanity. He, however, knows exactly what he’s doing, and has escaped, knowing that he could blend in perfectly at a Comic-Con to throw off law enforcement and hospital staff. Asher worked as a hacker and was very lazy, and is still single. He was very close with his brother, who helped him in his hacker job and was his only friend.
Button Lord
A Batman villain OC (original character), he has his evil sidekick Spice Waffle. Button Lord used to work a white collar job as the manager of a bank until he was screwed over by the higher ups and laid off. From here on out, he hates capitalism with a passion and has sworn to destroy it. His gimmick is that he can summon buttons with blades that can be thrown. However, he’s unable to prove this. He also claims that Spice Waffle has magic abilities that allow her to throw spice at people which burns them. This also can’t be proven.
Captain Walker
A Sith Lord, calling himself Captain Walker, trying to record funny Con videos by making it seem like he’s interrogating those who could be traitors against the Empire. Often threatens with his lightsaber but never ends up using it on anyone. I imagine him as an OC, like Button Lord. This one is less lovingly crafted, since Captain Walker is in it for the content. Captain Walker’s premise as a character is that he failed to be a good Sith Lord on the battlefield, but is great with interrogation, thus being assigned to capture criminals, which he does well.
With my cast set it was time to get to work. And I honestly can't explain how I really got where I did. I just started typing, with Captain Walker coming to interrogate Button Lord. I knew Button Lord had to speak for Spice Waffle to make this even funnier. It fell into place from there.
2:30AM, Saturday October 21st 2023
We had started workshops at midnight, where we read each other's work, so when we got to my script, it'd been hours since I'd seem what I'd written. What I'd written down was basically whatever banter came from my mind. I want to say that I don't write comedy, like, ever, because I'm typically not very good at it. It's not that I don't try, but I simply am not good at writing jokes that land.
This time though, it was different. I had forgotten most of what I wrote, and since my fellow playwrights read the lines to me, I was cracking up. I had forgotten what I'd written, and C, who was reading for Button Lord, was making Spice Waffle (that name is too funny) meow in such a funny way. I genuinely started laughing, and so did everyone else. Even Jeremy, who I don't know super well, but I hadn't seem him laugh like that before. I made a joke that everyone really liked, and I knew there and then I only had a bit of revising to do.
5:30AM
Three of the other playwrights have left, or are packing up. C asks me to read his play over one more time, since we've worked in a playwriting class together last semester, but also because I have interest in his play and the message it tells. C has a great way of slipping deep meanings in comedy plays. I asked C and Jeremy to check my play one last time. I had made minor edits, like having Button Lord speak without contractions (I'm becomes I am, don't becomes do not, etc), but hadn't changed much. A few laughs later, we were set. I sent the play off.
And that's about it for the process on my end. I got home at 6:30AM and slept til 2PM, and was back at MCC by 6:30PM to be ready for show time. My parents came to see the show, and it was such a magical 24 hours. I hope this gave some insight on the crazy process of this play I'm very proud of. I hope you enjoyed the play. For me, this a fun college playwriting challenge I'm so happy to be apart of.
Remember to get a good night's sleep,
-Rosetta 💖
Cover Image By Paul Knight