It’s a race against the clock for six Washington, D.C.-area theater companies competing in Play in a Day, an event in which the teams have 24 hours to write, stage and perform an original play. It starts March 7, with a kickoff meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. held by the Bethesda Urban Partnership, which produces the event. Groups receive one prop and one line of dialogue they must incorporate into their play. After that, writers head home to create their original scripts, due by 8 a.m. Saturday. Each team reports to a rehearsal space where they practice throughout the day. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. on March 8 at Imagination Stage in Bethesda. Total performance time is about 75 minutes, with three teams performing their 10- to 12-minute plays before intermission and the rest after. It’s followed by a Q&A session at which audience members can ask participants about their creative experience. Tickets are $20 and available at bethesda.org.
By the numbers:
- 17 years the Bethesda Urban Partnership has produced Play in a Day
- 6 number of teams competing. This year, groups from Montgomery County include Adventure Theatre-MTC, Flying V, Imagination Stage and Olney Theatre. Each team has one writer, one director as well as actors.
- 30 number of actors participating
- 3 awards given for Best Writing, Best Direction and Best Acting Ensemble
- 1 overall director. Former Adventure Theatre-MTC Artistic Director Michael Bobbitt, now executive director of the Mass Cultural Council in Massachusetts, returns to the area to direct the overall production.
This appears in the March/April 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
