Instant theater at Sac City College

Pulling habits out of rats—or rabbits out of hats as it were—can be a fascinating process to watch. I know of a klatch of musicians, including local songwriter Elena Powell and her husband Jeff Clark, along with Clark’s former band mate Grant-Lee Phillips (often seen these days as a between-scene troubadour on the WB series The Gilmore Girls), who used to get together for the occasional evening. Someone would write a bunch of outrageous made-up song titles down on pieces of paper and put them into a hat. Each person would draw a song title, and they’d have something like five minutes to write a song. Then everyone would figure out arrangements and they’d cut all the tunes on a four-track recorder. The results were often out of character, but quite interesting.

There’s something to be said for putting people on the spot to break them out of their creative fallbacks, forcing them to tap into a different muse. At least that seems to be the idea City Theatre and Synergy Stage had with their 29 Hour Playwriting Festival, which hits the stage for its third annual production this Sunday evening.

It works like this: On Saturday, at 1:30 in the afternoon, the eight or nine participating playwrights will get the title of the play they will write. The first year, everyone had to write a play titled Five-and-a-Half Pairs of Shoes and an Accordion That Cannot Come Onstage. Last year, according to City Theatre’s Luther Hanson, they opted for a simpler concept: You Know, You’re Funnier in My Dreams. Then they go home, or back to wherever they’re staying, where they will have eight hours to come up with a 10-minute play; they’ll present a finished script to the pool of directors that night.

The following morning, the directors will huddle with their cast—typically, three players—who will begin learning their lines, figuring out their blocking and business, then moving on to dress rehearsal before wrapping it up by 7 p.m.

At 8 p.m., it’s show time. The theater-in-the-round will be furnished with a stock set, the equivalent of the back line of amps and drums you find at multi-band rock festivals, and the individual directors can augment that with whatever embellishments—from minimalist to rococo—they care to haul from home.

Tickets are $7, on a first-come, first-served basis, at the Art Court Theatre at Sacramento City College, at 3835 Freeport Blvd. Parking is available at Lot J, next to the theatre on 12th Avenue, on the north side of SCC.

If impromptu creativity is on your radar, this is where you need to be on Sunday night.