Photos: The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre's third 24/7 Play Festival
The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre put on their third 24/7 Play Festival August 16 and 17, 2025, Tucson, Ariz. Seven plays were produced, starting with the writers at 8 pm. Friday typing up scripts for seven 10 minute plays overnight to be turned over to directors and actors early Saturday morning, honed throughout an intense 11 hours for seven debuts at 7 p.m. and an encore at 9 p.m.
Playwright Madeline Hill goes through her process while writing the script for what will become “The Third Strangest Thing to Happen In Marfa, Texas in 2003” for The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre’s 24/7 Play Festival. Hill, the youngest playwright participating at 19, was one of seven writers “locked” in Exo Roast Co. coffee shop at 8 p.m. Friday to write a script for a 10-minute play with a 4 a.m. Saturday deadline. The scripts were then produced and debuted to an audience at 7 p.m. Hill’s headgear was the prompt she randomly drew that had to be incorporated into her tale.
Dennis O’Dell takes a long moment in his dark corner of Exo Roast Co. coffee shop after hours of writing his 10-minute play during The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre’s 24/7 Play Festival. O’Dell was a veteran of the one-play-in-24-hours structure, having participated in the festival before.
Co-artistic and managing director of The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre Annika Maher works at getting copies of the seven plays printed out for the directors and actors in the 24/7 Play Festival. Maher, who was one of the event producers and lighting designer as well, had only a few hours to get more than 30 copies of the scripts ready for the players.
Directors Dawn McMillian, left, and Samantha Severson have a laugh while getting their first real look at the scripts during the festival. The seven directors randomly drew their assignments around 7:30 and had a half hour to get familiar with the work before the actors arrived.
Director Page Burkholder retreats outside the theater to try get a handle on hip-hop, music she had no prior experience with and a crucial element of the play “Tell Me About The Good OG Days” for The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre’s 24/7 Play Festival. A music genre was a detail the writers drew randomly and had to include in their scripts.
Tyler Gastelum, left, and Ivan Medina as Eric Knock and John Knock, unrelated, rehearse “Jazz is a Bore,” one of the entries in the 24/7 Play Festival. Actors had about 11 hours to work with the scripts, getting their first looks at the pages shortly after 8 a.m. for a 7 p.m. curtain.
Carlisle Ellis pokes out of the wings with a blocking question during tech rehearsal for “Death at the Driftwood Diner,” one of the entries in the 24/7 Play Festival. Casts and directors of the seven plays had 45 minutes on stage to get the tech aspects ironed out.
Director Alex Totillo watches her cast work through “Escape Room” in one of the spaces in The Historic Y, home of The Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre, for the third 24/7 Play Festival. The plays had casts of three to four actors who were randomly assigned to the playwrights, giving the writers info to shape their scripts.
Audrey Bailey, left, Emily Fuchs and Stephen Norton get a few precious minutes on stage to hone their performances before the opening of “Tell Me About The Good OG Days” at the festival.
Justine Wilken’s Constance Foley wrestles for the mic, performing in the radio-play-within-the-play “Death at the Driftwood Diner” at the festival. Masks, music genre and a phrase were requirements to be included, someway, somehow, in the performances.
Tyler Gastelum finds a seat in the house to memorize his lines in the last minutes before the doors open at the play festival.
Maryssa Orta, as Frances, trods the boards as “The Third Strangest Thing to Happen in Marfa, Texas in 2003” sees the lights on stage. The play was one of seven to be written, produced and performed, start to finish, in 24 hours.
Kelly Presnell
Photojournalist
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