Theatre fans can see non-stop action starting at 4:20 p.m. Friday as theatre hosts its second annual 24 hour play marathon with tickets $2.

“Twenty-four hour play marathon, first of all, it gives a lot of our lower classmen who haven’t had as much stage time, it gives them the opportunity to get on stage and work with the upperclassmen in a production,” theatre director Heather Willingham said. “It gives all of our students the opportunity to create an original piece of theatre and it’s a real challenge and they really rise to it.”

Unlike the traditional theatre performances throughout the year, the 24 hour play marathon is partly designed as a recruiting tool.

“I’m hoping to get more people excited about coming and seeing it and to know what it is we’re doing in our department,” Willingham said. “Really I’m hoping for them to just get so excited that next year we have two-three times the amount of participants and it just grows every year.”

In just its second year, the 24 hour play marathon took some time to catch on with theatre students

“When we did the first one, I had a little bit of pushback from my seniors,” Willingham said. “They didn’t necessarily understand what it was going to be and they really wanted to do their senior direct shows and afterwards they realized how much fun they had with it and juniors going into seniors this year were just from the very beginning very gung ho about doing it.”

The feedback from last year’s marathon sparked some changes to include more participants.

“The marathon brings us together as a department and a lot of theatre students,” junior Eduardo Borja-Prieto said. “Last year went so well and was so much fun that instead of two groups, we’ve grown it up to three and now we have more responsibilities.”

Many theatre performances throughout the year can be longer, but Friday’s marathon is more relaxed.

“Honestly it’s a bunch of having fun, it’s diving into the art of script writing and being able to tell a story in 30 minutes,” senior James Fagan said. “I hope to allow our actors to explore kind of something that’s not professionally written. Something that’s more loose and fun.”

Underclassmen make up the bulk of the cast with seniors directing. But regardless of the role, it tends to bring theatre students closer together.

“Last year I was an actor because I wasn’t a senior,” Fagan said. “It was the funnest experience of my junior year. Just everyone at one house for 24 hours, sleep deprived, just kind of trying to memorize a block of script in under 24 hours. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a bonding experience for everyone.”