Henderson County High School and Flat Rock Playhouse Studio 52 Team Up for 4th Annual 24 Hour Playwriting/Production Challenge

Beginning Friday, January 20, HCPS high school theatre students and teachers will team up with Flat Rock Playhouse artists to write, direct, and perform four original 10-minute plays. Four writing teams made up of one Flat Rock Playhouse mentor and four student writers representing each high school will convene Friday at 4:30pm. By 10:30pm Friday, each writing team will have written one 10-minute play. The scripts will be sent to one of the four high school theatre teachers, serving as directors, who will make preparations for rehearsals beginning at 9:00 AM Saturday, January 21.

Each cast will include students from all four high schools in an effort to create further cross-county artistic sharing. Students will receive their freshly written scripts Saturday morning, learn lines and blocking, and with the directors, decide on any technical elements for their final performance.

Saturday afternoon, Flat Rock Playhouse technical artists will join the actors and directors in The Playhouse Downtown theatre where each cast will have 50 minutes to tech their show by adding lights, music, and costumes. After each group has had their individual time, there will be one dress rehearsal where each cast will see the other plays performed for the first time.

At 6:30 PM, the doors will open to the public, and, ready or not, the show will go on! Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

Who: Flat Rock Playhouse Studio 52 and Henderson County Public School high school theatre students

What: 24 Hour Playwriting/Production Challenge

When: Saturday, January 21 at 7:00 PM

Where: Playhouse Downtown, 125 S. Main Street, Hendersonville

FLAT ROCK PLAYHOUSE

In 1937, a group of struggling performers, led by Robroy Farquhar, organized themselves as the Vagabond Players. The Vagabonds worked in a variety of places over the course of three years, and in 1940 found themselves in the Blue Ridge region of Western North Carolina. The local and tourist community welcomed them with open arms when they presented their first summer season of plays in a 150-year-old grist mill they converted into The Old Mill Playhouse at Highland Lake. So successful was that summer, they returned in 1941. After WWII, the Vagabond Players reorganized, came back to the region and opened a playhouse in nearby Lake Summit. The Lake Summit Playhouse thrived during the post war years and soon the Vagabond Players were looking for a larger and permanent home. In 1952, the troupe of performers, and a newly formed board of directors, made an offer to buy an 8-acre lot in the Village of Flat Rock. This new home made the Vagabonds "locals" and a rented big top gave birth to Flat Rock Playhouse. As the beautiful Western Carolina region continued to grow, so did The Playhouse and in 1961, by Act of the North Carolina General Assembly, Flat Rock Playhouse was officially designated The State Theatre of North Carolina. What began as a few weeks of summer performances in 1940 is now a nine-month season of plays including Broadway musicals, comedy, drama, and theatre for young audiences. The Playhouse's dual mission of producing the performing arts and providing education in the performing arts includes a professional series; a summer and fall college apprentice and intern program; and Studio 52, year-round classes and workshops in theatre and film for students from kindergarten through adults. Flat Rock Playhouse now hosts over 98,000 patrons annually and is a significant contributor to the local economy and the Arts in North Carolina.

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