This week, justArts spoke with Rafi Diamond ’18, Gabi Nail ’18 and Raphael Stigliano ’18 who directed the 24-Hour Musical.

justArts: Why did you want to direct 24-Hour?

Rafi Diamond: I’ve loved all my experiences with 24-Hour in the past and I’ve loved all my experiences directing, and I guess I figured it would be a good time. And it was.

Gabi Nail: I actually didn’t want to direct at first. I did 24-Hour my first year here and was so exhausted and stressed the whole time, I didn’t exactly run to be involved again. But after talking to the people involved, I realized I could get a lot out of having the experience again from a different perspective. I ultimately had a great time.

Raphael Stigliano: I’ve worked backstage on it a couple of times, but never actually been in it, so it was very exciting when they asked me if I was interested. I said yes, because I wanted to work with this great group of people, and because it just seemed like such a fun thing to get to be a part of. 

JA: Why did you want to do “Seussical” for 24-Hour?

RD: I knew it was a fun show with a lot of good parts and good places to do fun stuff with the ensembles. Also, I just really like it.

GN: I didn’t want to. I wanted to do “Mamma Mia” because I think the world needs more ABBA. But we couldn’t get the rights so here we are.

RS: I wanted to do “Seussical” because it’s such a weird play. It has so many weird characters and there was so much freedom to just be silly, and put together these really great visuals, and because there was a chance to put four of my friends in skintight black morphsuits — I think in many ways it turned out to be a perfect choice for 24-Hour.

JA: What is the best part of directing a show in 24 hours? 

GN: It’s pretty liberating, because ultimately, there’s not much that can be solidified in 24 hours. Most of what’s done onstage is the actors’ choices, since they forget almost everything we tell them during rehearsals. We honestly don’t know most of what’s going to happen during the show before we actually see it.

JA:  What was the funniest thing that happened during the 24 hours?

RD: The funniest thing to happen during the process was all the improvisations from the actors. They honestly brought such an amazing energy and enthusiasm to the show.

GN: I honestly don’t remember most of what happened. At some point I was just rolling around on the floor for a little bit because I was so tired and not my best self mentally... I guess that was funny.

JA:  How much sleep did you get?

RD: Not enough.

GN: Around three hours.

RS: About two hours.

JA: Anything else to add?

RS: You’ve never really seen method acting until you’ve seen our Thing 1 and Thing 2 parading around the SCC in character at 2 a.m. because they’re bored.

—Hannah Kressel