Excerpt: Students remote-produce storytelling festival Radio[24]

By Jason Lalljee, Class of 2021, Managing Editor, College Editorial Team

The audio festival was streamed live on YouTube last month. (Video courtesy of Theater[24])

For almost a decade, Theater[24] has been a UChicago staple for those drawn to the stage and undaunted by tight deadlines. As the organization’s name reveals, the goal is to produce a show — the scripts, the rehearsals and the eventual performance in the FXK Theater in the Reynolds Club — within 24 hours.

For Theater[24] participants, the first weekend of the quarter typically represents a return to the gambit; students meet on the first Friday back to campus and put six plays together by Saturday night. The University’s transition to remote learning this quarter, however, presented an obstacle to the company’s modus operandi — one that it quickly sidestepped with a move to audio drama, rebranding itself “Radio[24].”

Theater[24]'s winter show took place at the FXK Theater in Reynolds Club. (Photo by Natalia Rodriguez)

“As many on-campus creative projects have been cancelled, we wanted to provide students who have an interest in visual art or music the chance to make art and music in the festival,” said fourth-year Cameron Bernstein, one of the curators of Theater[24].

Each quarter, Theater[24] unites its shows under the banner of a single theme. For its inaugural radio edition, it was “Bed, Bath, & Body Works.”

Participants met over a Zoom call on the first Friday of spring quarter, during which they divided into groups made up of actors, writers, producers, sound designers, composers and graphic designers. Individually prompted with different Bed, Bath & Body Works fragrances (White Caramel Cold Brew, Caribbean Escape), writers spent all night writing scripts that were then interpreted and produced by the rest of their groups the day leading up to the show, which was streamed live on YouTube.

Read the full article here.