Playwright D.W. Gregory, author of Radium Girls, will be among the writers featured when The 24 Hour Plays make their New Jersey debut April 7 at Hoboken’s Mile Square Theatre.
“Absolutely thrilled to be part of this program,” Gregory said. “It looks like it’ll be a blast. As the name suggests, I’ll be cranking out pages pretty quickly. But the ultimate goal is to raise much-needed funds for the theatre’s education department.”
Established in 1995, The 24 HourPlays are a non-profit theater company that bring creative communities together to write, rehearse and perform new plays and musicals in twenty-four hours.
“Mile Square Theatre and The 24 Hour Plays honor an abiding belief in the power of creative collaboration to develop transformative multicultural voices for the theater,” said Kevin R. Free, Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre. “We’re thrilled to be a partner to The 24 Hour Plays for its New Jersey premiere and host to a delightful mix of talents from New Jersey and New York City to make the program really sing.”
Most Produced Play
Gregory is best known for Radium Girls, which has received more than 2,000 productions throughout the U.S. and abroad. For six years in a row, Radium Girls has been one of the ten most produced plays in U.S. high schools. Other works include Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, which received a rolling world premiere through the National New Play Network and recently closed a critically acclaimed production at Thalia’s Umbrella in Seattle. In addition, The Yellow Stocking Play, a new musical comedy with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah Knapp, won awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical in CreateTheater’s New Works Festival on Theatre Row in 2023.
Other writers include Susie Felber (Host/Producer “The Hawk”), Iraisa Ann Reilly (The Jersey Devil is a Papi Chulo), Pia Wilson (Black Bee), Marcus Scott (Sibling Rivalries), and Raakhee Mirchandani (JOURNEY TO THE STARS: KALPANA CHAWLA, ASTRONAUT). Directors include Julie Tucker, Rachel Dart (The Christmas Tree Farm) and Goldie Patrick (Paradise Blue). Musical Guests include Faye Chiao and Tasha Gordon-Solmon (Fountain of You). Additional artists to be announced.
Participating actors, writers, directors and production staff gather for the first time on the evening of Saturday, April 6th to introduce themselves and share prop and costume items they’ve been asked to bring. The writers will take inspiration from this meet and greet to write new plays overnight. In the morning, the actors and directors will receive the six new plays and team up with production staff to begin their rehearsal and tech process, with curtain at 7pm that night.
The 24 Hour Plays: Hoboken are produced by Leo Layla Diaz and Mark Armstrong in conjunction with Mile Square Theatre’s Artistic Director Kevin R. Free. The event will honor the long-standing contributions of the Rostan Family to Mile Square Theatre with the dedication of the naming of the gallery space. Proceeds from The 24 Hour Plays: Hoboken will benefit Mile Square Theatre’s non-profit theatre making and educational programming.
For more information see the full press release at Broadwayworld.com