On Oct. 28, members of Alpha Psi Omega (APO) got together for their second annual 24-hour theatre festival, titled, “Round the Campfire Tales.”
APO is a national honor theatre society at Southeastern that conducts various performances throughout the year.
The festival featured various short scenes told around a campfire.
The plays were written, directed, practiced and performed by APO members over 24 hours. Two days before the festival, students started writing their scripts. They had from 3 p.m. Oct. 25 until 3 a.m. Oct. 26 to complete them. On Saturday morning, participants directed and practiced for the show.
DeJuan James, one of the directors majoring in elementary education, said, “I got my script this morning. I knew very little about it beforehand, so to finally read it and direct it was a lot of fun. It’s really fun to be able to see it all come together, not only my scene, but everyone else’s scenes.”
At 6:30 p.m., students performed their scenes in the Student Union Theater for members of the community and APO members.
Karley Parr, a senior communication major and actress, said, “The process was long, but we honestly got a lot of work done in a short amount of time. We made a lot of progress. It was really fun, and as an actor, it’s a thrill that you get especially because you don’t have a lot of time to memorize your lines, so you do the best that you can.”
The performance consisted of five different scenes. The actors performed tales of legends, werewolves, imagination, insanity and death. Each scene was met with lively and loud responses from the audience.
Freshman theatre major and actor Xavier Johnson said, “The main thing that I find amazing about this is that we only have one opportunity. We have no other shows and we had a literal day to get it down. When we’re finally out there, and the audience is reacting and lively, nothing feels more wonderful than knowing that you’re doing a good job.”
APO will be having many more events soon, such as their performance of “Radium Girls” in February. To stay updated on their upcoming events, follow them on Instagram @selu_apo.
