Pitt's Redeye Theatre Project Presents Festival of Plays

PITTSBURGH-What most people believe would take months to complete, students at the University of Pittsburgh will try to accomplish in less than 24 hours. Approximately 45 members of Pitt's Redeye Theatre Project, a student-run play company, will write and rehearse a series of one-act plays all within 24 hours-beginning at 8 p.m. March 17. The plays will be performed in the Redeye Theatre Project Festival at 8 p.m. March 18 in Pitt's Studio Theatre, in the basement of Pitt's Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave., Oakland.

Eight student playwrights will begin writing precisely at 8 p.m. Friday, March 17, in Room B-20 of the Cathedral of Learning, and will continue into the wee hours of the morning, scrambling to meet a 12-hour deadline. At 8 a.m. Saturday, eight directors and a group of actors and technicians will arrive. During the next 12 hours, individual casts and directors will rehearse their separate plays while designers and technicians, under the direction of a student stage manager, will prepare the space, gather props and costumes, and arrange the lighting and sound. At 8 p.m. Saturday-exactly 24 hours after the playwrights' pens hit paper-the lights go down and the plays will be performed. Suggested admission to the festival is $3.

Melanie Dreyer, assistant professor and head of performance training in Pitt's Department of Theatre Arts, believes that this exercise is a great way for students to learn more about the theater business. "They'll learn how to work better with colleagues and organize and see their ideas come to fruition through hard work and dedication," she said.

The Redeye Theatre Project has similar festivals twice every academic term. For more information, call Cory Tamler at 412-736-8893 or visit www.pitt.edu/~sorc/rtp.

###

3/15/06/tmw