They call it “the extreme sports of theatre.” With 24 hours from blank page to premiere, Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre’s official name for the event, “24-Hour Miracle,” is also a pretty accurate description.
At 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, the participants gathered. All four directors put a theme into a hat. The last theme to emerge was the winner, in this case “#badombres,” a reference to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump calling some Mexican immigrants “bad hombres” in the last presidential debate. Afterwards, #badombre trended on social media — an ombre is a kind of dye job. 24-Hour Miracle’s four plays took both spellings as inspiration.
The four writers got to work, with a deadline 12 hours later. Mike Christenson, who the day before had tied for second place in Woosh Kinaadeiyí’s 6th annual grand poetry slam, likely wins the award for least sleep. It had been 40 hours since he’d gotten any, he said on Saturday night.
Allison Holtkamp, a member of Juneau’s new stand-up comedy group Club Baby Seal, participated for the first time.
She decided to focus on the “ombre” over “hombre.” When she got home and began typing, her script started out based in a hair salon. Problem was, she thought it a boring setting. Things got interesting, however, when she switched it to an abandoned amusement park, with two fortune-seekers looking for Nora — a fortune-telling parrot.
“I feel like this is what happens in the middle of the night,” Holtkamp said. “Things really get weird.”
In the world of theatre (and outside it too), weird makes for fun. Around 18 hours after Holtkamp first typed the word “parrot,” director Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs sat in Centennial Hall, gluing feathers to a mask.
It was her first time directing, she said, though she’s acted on Perseverance Theatre’s second stage and has always liked the idea of the 24-Hour Miracle.
“It’s not like you’re signing up to bring ‘Hamlet’ to life,” she said. “It’s a way to get my foot back in there, too.” Looking at the mask, she added, “Let’s hope all the glue sticks.”
Though they may not have worn feather masks, each play featured its own struggles and quirky characters. Danny Peterson’s “The Victim,” directed by Mike LeVine and acted by Aaron Lopez, Jay Jay Houck, and Amy O’Neill Houck, featured a “bad hombre,” a nonviolent therapist, and the victim’s quirky solution to his bullying.
Christenson’s “The Curse of the Recursive Curse” featured a love triangle with many, many permutations as Wes Adkins, a time-machine-inventing scientist and “bad hombre,” travels back and forth in time — and into slightly different dimensions — killing different versions of himself and pursuing love disastrously, and hilariously. (Bryan Crowder directed and Rain Barrett and Apryle McVey starred as Adkins’ wife and fellow scientist/love interest.)
Richard Carter and Heather LaVerne’s “Elevated,” directed by Julia O’Connor and acted by Theo Houck, Tobie Weston and Katie Bachman, featured the stymied honeymoon of high school sweethearts stuck in an elevator with an old lady whose nickname is “Baby Ruth” — complete with a spectacular drugged out slo-mo elevator dancing scene and a ukulele. All the plays made for some improbable, and hilarious, situations.
JDLT board secretary Stacy Katasse has produced the event for the last three years. Katasse and LaVerne drove all over town on Saturday getting prop lists, costume lists, and sound lists (LaVerne also ended up doing sound), raiding Brown Boots Costume Company, and putting together the programs.
“The point of the event plays to JDLT’s mission, which is — essentially it is to get people involved in theatre that might not have other opportunities,” Katasse said. “We have a great professional theatre in town where people can go who have honed their craft. Theatre in the Rough is another great company theatre in town… We at JDLT try to fulfill the role of the more relaxed environment. And that’s the strength of this event, is our actors only need to give us 24 hours.”
“I wish that I would have participated before this,” Holtkamp said. “I hope that even more people participate in the years to come, because it’s really fun.”
• Contact Capital City Weekly editor Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.