You go to a play and see a severed arm. What are you expecting next? Probably not a dance battle. 

On Friday, August 23, Los Altos High School’s Broken Box performed their second annual Instant Play Festival. The festival was inspired by plays some theater companies put on, where they write and rehearse a play in only one day. In the Los Altos iteration, students wrote, directed, and rehearsed four plays from start to finish in just eight class periods. 

Each play in the festival is required to include a certain prop and line. This year, the prop was a severed hand, and the line was, “I knew this was a bad idea, just look at the hair on my legs.” In one play, a reluctant principal puts on a talent show for his eager students. However, when the talent show goes awry and students begin fighting, the stressed principal exclaims, “I knew this was a bad idea, just look at the hair on my legs!”

“Last year we picked a gardening shovel, and I thought it would be super benign and everyone would be gardening,” Broken Box teacher Lisa Battle said. “But no, it turned into a murder weapon. I was like ‘this year it’s not going to be so violent’, but they picked a severed arm, so this year it is all murder again.”

Director senior Brisa Garcia Perez highlights the fun nature of the show, and believes the festival is a great way to break the ice.

“Broken Box is a really tight community, so a lot of new members are intimidated because everyone already seems so close,” Brisa said. “This is the perfect way to break the tension and help new members feel like they belong.”

The writing process behind the plays was very collaborative. Writers asked the actors what they could and wanted to do on stage, tailoring specifically to each group of actors.

“It’s rare in theater to show off the cool skills you want to do,” Battle said. “But when you have a writer collaborating with you, if you want to say the alphabet backwards you can, if you want to do cartwheels you can, if you want to speak French you can, if you want to sing you can.”

Assistant technical direction senior Nathan Coleman has been in Broken Box for three years. Since implementing the instant play festival, he has noticed a positive difference. 

“My sophomore year, it was a really slow transition into the class,” Nathan said. “But going into the season last year, everyone was just way more comfortable because we had already all worked together.”

Many challenges arose due to the time constraint. New tech members and actors needed to be trained, the set was restricted, and the number of sound cues were limited. However, the fast paced environment allowed for people to learn their roles efficiently in a low pressure setting.

“We kind of just shoved everyone together and said put on a play,” Battle said. “It’s so great because it’s not high stakes, and there isn’t a show riding on someone’s back.”

The show was filled with all kinds of fun elements, but the chaotic nature of the production was what made it special.

“These plays are just dumps of random thoughts onto paper,” Brisa said. “It’s not your typical show, but that’s what makes it so great.”