Pacific Index

 Pacific celebrates its ninth annual Instant Theatre Festival

“30 different brains mashed together [intellectually, not figuratively!] in 24 hours running on no sleep.” This is how producer Emily Smith explains the Instant Theatre Festival to me, which honestly seems to be a pretty accurate summary. 

The festival, to give context to those who may not know, operates under relatively simple rules: at 7:30 p.m. the night before the festival, playwrights draw a random prompt and must write an, on average, 8-12 page script, that night. The next morning, in conjunction with their assigned directors and actors, each group will have until the festival starts at 6:30 p.m. to practice and perfect their plays. Then, voilà, five new plays that didn’t exist 24 hours prior are performed for the audience! 

This year was Pacific’s ninth year putting on the festival, and it was also Smith’s eighth year participating in the festival and their sixth year producing it. Smith, who graduated from Pacific in 2022 and is now the costume designer for Pacific’s theatre department, understandably has a special place in their heart for the festival. Smith emphasizes the accessibility that the festival offers to students at Pacific who may not be theatre or performance arts students themselves, but still want to dip their toes into the theatre scene. They explain to me that while the playwrights and directors are usually invited for the position from known students who have experience with script writing and directing, anyone can put in to be an actor, no matter their acting background or major. “We just want you to succeed and have fun,”  Smith says. “Wherever you’re coming from, you have your own skill set to share.” 

One unlikely participant this year was Kyle Woodcock, a biology major with no prior experience in acting. He echoed what Smith said about the festival being supportive and low-stakes: “It was probably one of the best ways to try out theatre because you only have to commit to one day, a smaller crowd compared to other shows, and it was a very welcoming environment.”

Another participant, junior Mj Beaumont, describes the experience from another standpoint, as she was a playwright for one of the plays. “The evening before, we got the prompts to write the script, and then we were also given a twist at midnight… we had to include the phrase ‘Let’s Dance!’” 

Beaumont’s own prompt wasn’t what you’d maybe expect, however, when asked what her prompt was, she told me: “A bunch of printed out google maps of somewhere in France.” Her solution? A heartwarming story of an old couple recounting the first time they met in, you guessed it, Paris! 

The festival combines all the great things about theatre… creativity, inclusivity, and a bit (a lot) of chaos— and while it may err on the side of type two fun (super stressful in the moment and great fun afterwards), it is guaranteed to be an entertaining experience for viewers, and an amazing opportunity for actors.