14/48 - World’s Quickest Theatre Festival

8:47 PM 0 Comments

Photo courtesey: 1448 Fest Blog

Agastya Kohli
Imagine this - 7 playwrights, 7 directors, 25 to 30 actors, some of Seattle’s most adventurous scenic, costume, lighting and prop designers, and a handful of musicians come together on a Thursday evening. They all write a theme that they’d like to see seven plays about, and put the themes into a ‘cone of destiny’. At random, one of these themes is picked from the cone, and the playwrights are sent home to write a 10 minute play on the selected theme.

The playwrights bring the scripts back next morning at 8am. The directors pick a script at random; they pick their cast at random; and off goes the company to rehearse, block, memorize, design, costume, light, score, forget lines, re-memorize lines, tech and finally perform the shows over the next 12 hours! Thus are born seven brand new world premier plays, fully staged, with sets and props, light and sound effects (live music provided by the band) - in 24 hours. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, the Friday night audience puts in more suggestions into the cone of destiny - a new theme is picked at 10pm on Friday, and off they go to do the whole thing all over again on Saturday!

14/48 is one of the best things that happens in Seattle that no one seems to know about! The artistic talent represented in 14/48 is some of the finest that Seattle has to offer, and not only is it impressive that 14 new plays go from page to stage in 48 hours - but the quality of these 14 plays defies all logic and expectation! Sure, any collection of short plays will have a little disparity - not all plays are going to be equally good. But the success rate at 14/48 continues to surprise every time!

For a student of theatre, what is most amazing about this process is the courage shown by everyone involved - especially the actors. You have no idea what you’re going to get cast as - it’s random, remember! You might get lucky and hit your comfort zone, but more likely, you may be cast as a character that is completely wrong for you! So what do these actors do? They bring it! They bring all their talent and sense of adventure with them - to mold themselves into whatever might land in their lap. Sure - it may be “wrong” for their type - but no other environment will give them an opportunity to play a character completely outside their natural range, and no other audience will ever be as supportive and forgiving as the audience at 14/48. For once you’re in that theatre in any capacity - including the audience, you become a part of the creative energy that fills this festival. Once exposed to 14/48, you will never be the same again!

14/48 is held twice a year - two weekends in January, and then again for two weekends in July/August. Visit the 14/48 website at WWW.1448fest.com for more details on the Summer festival.

Agastya Kohli leads Pratidhwani Drama and is a volunteer for 1448.