A beloved theater festival will debut on Vashon when The 14/48 Theater Festival presents 14 plays created in 48 hours to island audiences at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Katherine L White Hall.
Vashon Center for the Arts and Open Space for Arts & Community are co-producing the event, which has run in Seattle for over two decades. Called the world’s quickest theater festival, 14/48 brings together seven writers, seven directors and a host of actors, designers, musicians and volunteers to create 14, 10-minute plays over the course of 48 hours.
Actor and Open Space Develop-ment and Communications Director Maria Glanz has twice acted, twice directed and once written for previous 14/48 “extravaganzas,” as she likes to call them.
“It is really creative, collaborative madness in the best way,” she said. “The energy is palpable and artists have to make snap decisions and fly with first impulses and trust their instincts. It’s like a theater amazing race and summer camp packed into one 48-hour period.”
It all begins, Glanz said, on Thursday night when the whole company — the actors, directors, writers, designers and band — comes together. They throw themes into a hat and one is chosen. Then the writers draw slips that indicate where their play will land in the program and the number of men and women actors involved. Two to five actors are typically assigned to each play. The writers go home, write a 10-minute play and send it back by 7:30 a.m. Next up are the directors, who arrive at 8:30 a.m. and, from the hat, draw the play they will direct. A confab between directors and writers occurs before the actors arrive, with the directors drawing the actors’ names for their play from the proverbial hat.
While the writers sleep, the directors and actors rehearse the seven plays throughout the day, the band decides and rehearses what to play and the designers gather or make costumes and props. Each play gets a 20-minute tech rehearsal starting at 2:30 p.m.
Then come two shows on Friday night — the world premiere at 7 p.m., and the closing night performance at 9:30 p.m.
Between the two shows, a new theme is drawn from audience suggestions. The writers get to work, and the whole process is repeated for Saturday’s shows.
Since 14/48’s inception in 1997, artistic communities in Bellingham; Austin, Texas and in the United Kingdom have initiated versions of the festival. Along with Glanz, island actors Mik Kuhlman and Anthony Winkler have participated in dozens of festivals.
“It’s a long-time dream come true to bring this to Vashon,” Glanz said.
Tickets are available at Heron’s Nest Gallery, Vashon Center for the Arts and vashoncenterforthearts.org.
