For the 10th time, I took part as a writer in Overnight Sensations, the 24-hour play festival sponsored by Hollins University and Mill Mountain Theatre. I’ve also taken part in five other timed writing events at other theatres, so this was my 15th overall. A previous post showed went what down on Friday night.

What you don’t see are pictures of me writing Friday night and into early Saturday morning. In terms of a firm idea, I had what might have been my latest start ever but my earliest finish (12:30 a.m.) Once I get an idea, I can write pretty fast. I’ll explain more about what I wrote in another post.

Here’s how things went down Saturday morning and early afternoon.

We writers gathered at 8 a.m. for a meeting with our director, followed by a production meeting led by technical director Shelby Love (in the chair on stage). This went over the order of the shows (which sometimes is dictated by production needs), how transitions will work, and any production details — light cues, sound cues, etc.

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For the 10th time, I took part as a writer in Overnight Sensations, the 24-hour play festival sponsored by Hollins University and Mill Mountain Theatre. I’ve also taken part in five other timed writing events at other theatres, so this was my 15th overall.

Here’s how Overnight Sensations works: On Friday night, the six writers, six directors, and assorted cast members (and others) gathered at Hollins. The writers drew our directors from a hat (I drew Richie Cannaday), then the writers and directors took turns drawing a cast, a genre (I drew science fiction), a setting (a cocktail lounge) and a theme (I drew “before we lie to others we must first lie to ourselves.”) Then the writers have overnight to write a 10-minute play, with rehearsals on Saturday and a show Saturday night. Here’s how this year’s went down.

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My 15-minute play NO TWO SNOWFLAKES is playing in the one-act festival at The Secret Theatre in Queens — from January 10 to August 6, with the potential to advance on to the semi-finals and finals.

From left: Director Melissa Lewyn, Emma Sarah Davis, me, Alex Hardin and Cameron Reese.

This is the second time I’ve had a show in that festival. I had THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE INTERNET in 2019.