Fusion Fest II to open Monmouth College theatre season
What will happen when her students create and stage four plays in just 24 hours?
Last year, Emily Rollie, assistant professor of theatre at Monmouth College, proposed an interesting question: What will happen when her students create and stage a play in just 24 hours? Better yet, what will happen when they stage four plays?
The hilarity and hijinks that ensued last year during the initial Fusion Fest productions are sure to be repeated at Fusion Fest II, where a series of short plays will be written, staged and performed in 24 hours. The public performance will be staged on Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fusion Theatre, MC’s downtown theatre, located at 230 S. Main St. Tickets for FusionFest are $5 for adults and $3 for students, seniors and patrons with a Monmouth College ID.
Blind drawings will kick off the festival on Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m., as the playwrights will draw for their directors and actors. From that point, the playwrights will have until 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 to write their plays. Then, hot off the press, the plays will be handed to their directors and actors, who will have until 7 p.m. to rehearse, memorize and stage them.
Rehearsals beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 are free and open to the public. The theatre will be cleared by the evening and will re-open at 7 p.m. One half-hour later, the audience will be able to watch the controlled chaos come alive on the stage.
“Festivals like this are great opportunities to get the creative juices flowing,” said Rollie, “and to get to see new theatre in its raw and exciting form, testing the directors, actors, technicians, designers and playwrights alike.”
The hilarity and hijinks that ensued last year during the initial Fusion Fest productions are sure to be repeated at Fusion Fest II, where a series of short plays will be written, staged and performed in 24 hours. The public performance will be staged on Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Fusion Theatre, MC’s downtown theatre, located at 230 S. Main St. Tickets for FusionFest are $5 for adults and $3 for students, seniors and patrons with a Monmouth College ID.
Blind drawings will kick off the festival on Sept. 4 at 7:30 p.m., as the playwrights will draw for their directors and actors. From that point, the playwrights will have until 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 to write their plays. Then, hot off the press, the plays will be handed to their directors and actors, who will have until 7 p.m. to rehearse, memorize and stage them.
Rehearsals beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 are free and open to the public. The theatre will be cleared by the evening and will re-open at 7 p.m. One half-hour later, the audience will be able to watch the controlled chaos come alive on the stage.
“Festivals like this are great opportunities to get the creative juices flowing,” said Rollie, “and to get to see new theatre in its raw and exciting form, testing the directors, actors, technicians, designers and playwrights alike.”
