'24/7' at Live Arts creates plays in a day

Ray Nedzel is going to need some more hats.

Not to wear, mind you, even though he is serving as a producer and an artistic director and a host this weekend.

He needs lots of hats, literally, to pull seven brand-new plays together in 24 hours. It all unfolds or starts tonight and will end Saturday when Whole Theatre presents “24/7” at Live Arts.

The hat — the sorting hat, if you will — determines what the plays are about, who will write them, who will direct them and who will star in them.

Although the finished productions will be staged twice Saturday night, anyone can come out tonight and help set the ball in motion.

“We are going to take suggestions from everyone who is there and throw them into the proverbial hat, although we may have to use a basket,” Nedzel said with a laugh.

Nedzel had participated in several similar one-day fast, frenzied festivals in New York and Los Angeles. After moving to Charlottesville, and seeing the caliber of local talent, he thought the idea just might work here, too.

“One of the reasons that this is great for me,” he said, “is that when I did it the first year, a lot people thought that a one-day festival wouldn’t be popular.”

It was. People wanted to participate. People wanted to watch.

He has a wait list for every single position on the cast and crew. Each of the past three years brought sold-out productions, and this year he is expecting Live Arts’ seats to fill up quickly.

“The first year I just asked people that I knew,” Nedzel said, “and it just evolved.

“This year we have seven plays, seven directors, 24 actors, a whole crew of 15 — plus a front-of-the-house crew. Sixty people are involved.

“I like it because it does what it says it’s going to do. It’s fun. It’s very fast. And it’s good.”

He keeps it fresh by involving new people each year.

“I wanted to reach out to people who had never done [‘24/7’] before,” he said. “I tell the audience each year that if they want to be involved to email me. I told them I would put them on the list.”

This year’s writers include Mendy St. Ours, Ty Cooper, Shawn Hirabayashi, Kate Monaghan, Edward Warwick, Karen Ratzlaff and Matthew Minnicino.

Returning as director are Dorothy Kohlligian and Marianne Kubik.

A newcomer to “24/7” but no stranger to the director’s chair is Live Arts alum Fran Smith, who joins John Holdren, Gary White, Tracie Skipper and Kerry Moran.

“At least 50 percent of the people have never participated in a ‘24/7,’ ” Nedzel said. “Six of the seven playwrights have never written for ‘24/7’ … and 17 of the 24 actors have never acted in a ‘24/7.’

“I sent out a massive email looking for actors.”

One of the new actors is NBC29 reporter Dannika Lewis, who reported on the fun last year and wanted to test her skills on stage.

“Shawnna Pledger and Steven Levine, who were well known here in local theater, moved to North Carolina, but they wanted to come back and participate as actors,” Nedzel said.

Larry Goldstein, another well-known local performer, also is among the actors waiting to have his name pulled out of a hat.

But it all starts tonight when the playwrights walk up to the hat.

With a theme picked from tonight’s audience, Ray will put seven key phrases into the said hat.

“The playwrights will come up and pull the three-word phrase out of the hat,” he explained. “Then they will pull the number of characters out of a hat. For example, one might say ‘three women and a man.’ ”

That’s it. Each playwright has a phrase. Each knows how many people will be in the play — and each has one night to write a 10-minute script.

“About 7 in the morning, the directors and designers will hold their one and only production meeting where they will lay out … everything,” he said.

But wait. The directors have to visit the sorting hat, too.

“After all the plays have been submitted, most via email, the directors go the hat and pull out their scripts,” he said.

Then they cast their productions. You guessed it — from the luck of the draw. They names of all 14 actors are in a hat.

There is one hat for the women and another hat for the men.

“The directors have an hour to meet with the playwrights, and each team gets one technical rehearsal on stage somewhere near noontime Saturday,” he said.

“The rest of the day the cast is off rehearsing in spaces all around downtown, including the Omni, Mudhouse and Light House.”

Then it’s back for costumes, one shot at a technical rehearsal, memorizing lines — and then the audience arrives.

“At seven we will open the doors and at 7:30 we will begin the plays running from 1 to 7. For the 10 o’clock show we will do them in the reverse order, 7 to 1,” Nedzel said.

The designers, playwrights and directors will be watching from the balcony.

Downstairs is reserved for the audience, and who knows? Some from this year’s audience may just find their names in a hat next year.