What can you accomplish in a day? If you’re a typical student at UCLA, you might go to class, see some friends and maybe, if you’re feeling really productive, do some homework. Or, if you are a cast member in the “24-Hour Musical,” you can memorize, produce and perform a musical within 24 hours.
On Sunday, a group of musically inclined students at UCLA will do exactly that, all in the name of charity. “24-Hour Musical” is now in its third year at UCLA.
The show is akin to any other show produced at UCLA. The roles are cast, lines memorized, choreography taught, costumes fitted and sets produced. Whereas a typical show would take at least a month or more to create, everything in “24-Hour Musical” is done within a day.
“You’re pretty much awake for 24 hours, trying to get the entire full-length musical staged and ready in that time,” said Joan Cummins, the co-director of this year’s show and a second-year theater student.
“24-Hour Musical” was originally started by the student group Shakespeare at UCLA in 2008. Matt Waters, who graduated from UCLA in 2009 with a degree in cognitive science, is one of the co-founders of the event and served as the co-director of the first show.
He said that even he was surprised by how successful “24-Hour Musical” ended up being ““ the first year raised up to $10,000 for charity.
“The first year was totally an experiment, and we had no idea that it would be as successful as it was,” he said. “We thought at the very least we would have some fun, and if we did make some money, that would be totally awesome.”
The fundraising process for “24-Hour Musical” is similar to “Dance Marathon.” Each participant raises $200, with all proceeds going toward No Limits, a nonprofit organization that strives to provide support to deaf and hard-of-hearing children via therapy and the theatrical arts, Waters said.
This year’s show is unique in that it was a collaborative effort between three musical theater ensembles at UCLA: Hooligan Theatre Company, Color and Light Theater Ensemble, and Act III Theater Ensemble.
Jen Fingal, a second-year theater and performance studies student on the planning committee as the Act III representative, said that the decision to continue with “24-Hour Musical” was a joint one between the theater groups.
“Since Matt graduated, we all wanted to keep the tradition going. We thought it would be a great idea to have it be a cooperative venture between all of us, since all of the theater groups on campus are good friends,” she said.
The 24-hour process will begin on Saturday at 8 p.m., when the cast will be given the title of this year’s musical and their roles. Previous years’ selections include “Grease” and “Guys and Dolls.” As for this year, the only people who know the title are those in the planning committee, and even then there is little prep work involved when thinking about the show itself.
“I am not going to come in deciding what the blocking is or how people are going to be sitting on stage,” Cummins said. “To be on my feet and thinking and just getting everything in the place it needs to be is a really exciting challenge.”
For those who will be performing, the process calls for a good memory and the ability to improvise.
Fourth-year physiological science student Tiffany Chow first became involved in “24-Hour Musical” when she was cast as one of the leads in last year’s show, “Guys and Dolls.” She recalls having to improvise certain moments in the show.
“When the show actually happened … I stumbled a few times and just kept on singing. Since no one knew the song anyway, they didn’t really notice that I wasn’t singing the right words,” she said.
Yet even with the stress and lack of sleep, cast members say “24-Hour Musical” is worth it for the people involved and for the cause.
“Everyone just works off of each other, and it’s just really fun, positive energy bouncing off of each other,” Chow said. “Everyone knows that it’s for a wonderful cause, and we don’t have time to be a bad sport. It’s all for the kids.”
This year’s show will be in Ackerman Grand Ballroom, and there will be an opportunity for viewers to donate to No Limits during the show.
Cummins encourages students to come to the show not only to donate, but also to see an entertaining show.
“It’s just fun, we make total fools of ourselves. We haven’t slept for 24 hours, and we maybe ran through the scene one time. No matter what, it’s fun to watch and hopefully will also be a really good show,” Cummins said.