Kansas again muscled its way into Broadway's spotlight as William Inge Center for the Arts Artistic Director Peter Ellenstein directed at the "Broadway 24 Hour Plays" with its luminous cast. Ellenstein directed four famed actors in a 10-minute play which is a part of one the entertainment industry's biggest New York charity events, held Monday November 9. His cast comprised: Gaby Hoffman, Demi Moore, Jeremy Sisto, and Julia Stiles.
The script "Pen Play" was written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck, who herself has twice visited Independence. In 2003 she was the William Inge Theatre Festival's Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American Theatre Award and then returned 2005 as a guest presenter.
"Theresa wrote a beautiful little gem of a play about a family dealing with grief. It's amazing that she was able to develop such complex characters and relationships overnight. It was both funny and touching," said Ellenstein, "The actors were terrific to work with; dedicated, exacting, and really developed an ensemble over the course of the day. It was a joy to work with them."
Hoffman has almost two dozen films under her belt, though probably best known for "Freaky Friday," "Field of Dreams' and "Uncle Buck." Moore is internationally renowned for her films that include "Ghost" and "Indecent Proposal."
Jeremy Sisto has received much acting acclaim, which includes the lead in "Jesus" and the HBO Series "Six Feet Under." Stiles's credits include the blockbuster "Bourne" movies and "10 Things I Hate About You."
The Broadway-Kansas connection continued through the evening. Tina Howe, the 2005 William Inge Theatre Festival Honoree, was one of the six playwrights. Nathan Louis Jackson, who has a critically-acclaimed play currently at the Lincoln Center Theatre, is also a previous visitor to Independence, Kansas; he wrote for the Inge Center's "College 24 Hour Plays" in 2006, while a student at Kansas State University.
It was the third time Ellenstein directed at the Broadway 24 Hour Plays-which has ticket prices as high as $295 and raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for Urban Arts Partnership, a charity which sponsors arts-in-education programming at public schools.
Tina Fallon, founder of The 24 Hour Company, invited Ellenstein to join because he is a strong believer in the positive artistic benefits of the 24 Hour Plays format.
The Inge Center annually hosts 24 Hour Plays for college students across the Midwest and for high school students. The latter is reportedly the only such 24 Hour Plays which gathers student actors from numerous high schools, both urban and rural. Plus, the Inge Center sponsors this artistic challenge for the general public at the Community 24 Hour Plays.
