On Nov. 8, NYU Shanghai’s drama club “Thespians” put on their second annual 24-hour Play. The 24-hour Play is a chance for students to write, direct, rehearse and perform skits - all within 24 hours. This year, approximately 20 students participated and together composed four mini-skits that focused around life at NYU Shanghai. Natalie Todd, President of Thespians, ended the day extremely proud of the performance, stating “all four of our plays were meaningful, but even the three comedic skits have an underlying tone that has something you can take away after the performance.” This seemed to be the case as the nearly 60 students in the audience left with smiles on their faces. The feat was impressive - without any help from faculty except to unlock doors, the Thespians managed to put together a 45-minute play with very little time to rehearse. Todd went on to say that she “could not even say [they] had been through one full rehearsal” before going to perform on stage. Regardless, it was a considerable success as the audience almost quadrupled compared to last year's performance. The four skits, entitled Post Apocalyptic Shanghai, Meeting in the Middle, Pollution Peace, and Happy Refrigerator Land were directed by Richard Awuku-Aboagye, Abiral Chitrakar Phynuyal, Defne Inhan, and Claire Yao, respectively. Nicholas Sanchez, Vice-President of Thespians, expressed the importance of having the new facilities to help guide their work, but most notably mentioned the aid that the freshmen brought. "[The freshmen] came out and gave equal support, and I think that is commendable and definitely important for the future of our club.” He also conveyed his thanks to The Artists Guild, which helped with props and outfits for the play, and to freshman Colton Paul and Sam Arellano, who managed sound tech. The 24-hour play is already becoming an NYU Shanghai tradition that will continue to expand and grow with the student body. But until the next show, Todd asserted that she just wanted to do one thing: “sleep.” This article was written by Emily Flippen. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Ng Meizhi