A lot of art was created in Sweetwater County in the 24 hours from last Friday night to Saturday night.
Two different creative 24-hour events took place over the weekend. The Art on the Green and connected Battle on the Green competitions were happening in Green River, while the Actors’ Mission page to stage event was going on in Rock Springs.
While Art on the Green has been around for almost two decades, the page to stage event was the first time the Actors’ Mission has done a 24-hour playwriting challenge, and possibly the first time one has ever been done in Sweetwater County.
While I admire the painters and sculptors who created masterpieces at Art on the Green, there was no way I could join them. I stick by the old cliche that I can barely draw stick figures.
Playwriting, on the other hand, is right up my alley. I participated in a playwriting competition while I was in college and always loved it, so I was excited when I heard the Actors’ Mission was putting one on. It was a little different than I expected though.
The college competition I was used to was never a true 24-hour event. Writers had about 24 hours to write, the team running the competition had about 24 hours to select the winning plays, and the cast and crew had about 24 hours to rehearse and perform those plays. For the Actors’ Mission, everyone had 24 hours to do everything.
This meant I had about four hours to actually get my 15-minute, one-act play written. I also didn’t work on it at all beforehand, because no one was sure who would show up to act, so I had no way of knowing what characters I could work with — how many, what genders, what ages, etc. I waited until I got to the event and saw what actors were available. Then I started brainstorming to come up with an idea for a play. I wasn’t confident about the idea that came to mind, but it was the only idea I had, so I ran with it.
I claimed my spot in the Broadway Theater — a tent the event organizers had set up in the lobby. I sat on a couch cushion, grabbed some snacks, put my headphones in, and wrote from about 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. As the clock was ticking down, I wasn’t sure if I was happy with my play. I wanted to make it a little longer, a little less cliche, a little more understandable in terms of character development. But I didn’t have time to do any of those things. I had time to get out a script, so that’s what I did. While I knew it could have been better, I also knew I was happy with what it was for the amount of time it was written in.
Around 2 a.m., everyone gathered on the stage at the Broadway for the first read-through of the three plays that had been written and would be produced. I left after the read-through, around 3:30 a.m., and was able to go home and get some sleep. The cast and crew were just getting started though.
They were genuinely incredible, working all through the night and day, only catching little bits of rest, filling multiple roles as actors (often in more than one play), directors and crew members. And they pulled it off.
I was one of the only ones who wasn’t fulfilling multiple roles — at least, I didn’t plan on it. After getting some sleep, I went back to the theater to see how things were going, and I ended up being recruited to help with some of the technical elements of the show like the lighting. I also stayed afterwards to help with cleaning up. I still didn’t do half as much as most of the other people who participated, and am amazed by how dedicated they stayed while extremely sleep-deprived.
The entire experience was challenging and chaotic, but absolutely worth it.
I’m sure those who participated in Art on the Green and Battle on the Green had their own challenges and uncertainties, but I am blown away by the art they were able to produce that I’ve seen in photos from the event.
Sweetwater County is often seen as a place that doesn’t have much art. And it’s true, we may not have the amount of resources, people, or venues you’ll find in cities. But what we do have is a heck of a lot of talented people in our small community.
Whether it’s writing, acting, directing, painting, sculpting, or any other form of art that comes out while doing all the others, we have people who are amazingly talented in every art form. Some create for their living while others do it for fun. While these people are around us all the time, it can be easy to miss them. But when we can bring these people together and have them crank out art in a limited amount of time, like we did this last weekend, it becomes even more obvious just how many talented people are here, and just how talented they are.
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