Daylight saving time nets annual play festival extra hour

The 25-Hour Play Festival took place from Saturday evening, Oct. 31 to Sun., Nov. 1. This is the third time La Sierra University has hosted the festival, but this year the title was changed to reflect daylight saving time. It is an opportunity for students to exhibit their writing, directing and acting skills and have the chance to win an award. 

The participants were given the prompt for their plays at the start of the festival at 7 p.m. in Matheson Hall. This year’s theme was entitlement. The writers were paired up with actors and a director by randomly picking out names from a hat. Most of the writers spent their time working on their scripts till the 6 a.m. Sunday deadline. After completion, the scripts were given to the directors and actors. The teams were then given time to rehearse before performing their plays to an audience at 8 p.m. “They showed up, worked really hard, and I’m very proud of what they accomplished,” said Marilynn Loveless, director of drama and co-producer of the event.

“The morning was filled with a lot of exploration of the script, acting exercises, and rehearsal of the scripts,” said Shane Wood, writing instructor and co-producer.

There were additional rules added to the competition in order to add both a challenge and assist the writers in a fair process. They were all required to use the line, “Aren’t you a precious little snowflake,” and include a pageant sash as a prop. The actors were only allowed to wear black clothing and have minimal props.

Ruthie Heavrin Orozco won the first place prize of $500 for her script called “Entitlement: That’s What That is,” with the help of four other students. The director of her play was Daniel Thomas, junior, and the actors were Ryan Lopez, sophomore, Dominic Torres, freshman, and Rico Oliver Bautista Macias, junior. Ashley Minjarez, junior, and her team won a second prize of $350 for her play titled “Changing Fields,” and senior Idida Casado’s team won the third place prize of $150 for her play titled “Brothers Got Talent.” All of the participants were of different majors and fields that were different from drama, such as religious studies, marketing and neuroscience. Some students were also returning participants in the festival.

“One of my favorite moments was watching the audience react to a particularly poignant moment that had been so carefully crafted by the writer just hours before, then shaped by the director, executed to perfection by the actors, and to see them have that moment of splendor when the audience fully and completely understood it,” said Wood.