Ashland New Plays Festival board President Janet Rodkey calls it "high compression theater." The poster calls it "The 24/7 Project." What audiences are in for is an evening of original theater created in the space of a single day.

Seven playwrights will have their work staged at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22, at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater, 23 S. Central, Medford. The seven plays will have been written the night before in the space of 11 hours. Directors, actors and musicians will have another 12 hours to turn the script into a fully produced play.

On the eve of the event, seven playwrights will gather in the Craterian lobby. They include Eve Smyth, Bobbie Kidder and Cil Stengel of The Hamazons, Michael Hume of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mitzi Miles-Kobota of the Ashland New Plays Festival, Matthew Southworth and Derek Cochran.

Event producer Bruce Hostetler chose the playwrights along with Eve Smyth. "We started with playwrights we knew in the area," Hostetler said. "We asked for writing submissions from some people. I said: 'Think funny and fast and send it to me.'" Five of the playwrights are local and the other two are from Seattle and San Francisco.

From a hat, playwrights will choose names of two to four actors, a prop and a musical instrument that will provide scoring for the play. These are the elements they will work with in creating their scripts. At 8 p.m. the night before performance, the seven playwrights will be given the signal to start writing. Their assignment: write a script for a short 10- to 15-minute, one-act play by 7 a.m. the next morning. The Craterian will provide room for the playwrights overnight to write.

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When 7 a.m. rolls around, the playwrights will hand their scripts over to the directors, who have until 7 p.m. to complete rehearsals and make any necessary revisions to bring the play to the stage.

Hostetler said playwrights could suggest whom they'd like to work with so their play would be in the hands of someone they knew or trusted. It will be up to the playwrights and directors to work out the rules of rehearsals and playwright involvement, Hostetler said.

Among the directors will be Peter Alzado, of Oregon Stage Works; Janet Greek and G. Valmont Thomas of OSF; and Liisa Ivary and Caroline Shaffer who have directed and acted for a number of theaters, including Oregon Cabaret Theatre, OSF and Oregon Stage Works.

The directors will work with a cast that includes actors from OSF, Oregon Stage Works, Camelot Theatre Company, Southern Oregon University and other theaters: Catherine Coulson, Kate Sullivan, Maggie McClellan, Sarah Rutan, Richard Howard, Shad Willingham, Chris DuVal, Juan Rivera LeBron, Dee Maaske, Gregory Linington and Meghan McCandless. The Craterian will provide seven rehearsal rooms.

Part of the directors' tasks will be to meet with musicians who will score the play. "I'm looking for very eclectic instrumentation," Hostetler said. Confirmed participating musicians include: Danny Moore, mandolin; Joe Diehl, guitar; Kent Heyward, saxophone; Bruce McKern, bass; Terri Cote, percussion; and Christine Williams, voice. The musicians are scheduled to arrive at 2 p.m. and begin creating original music, which the directors can use any way they want to. The music could be to open and close the play, score the entire piece or even serve as a character. A rehearsal from 2 to 5 p.m. will introduce the music into the play.

From 5 to 7 p.m., each play will have a 15-minute tech rehearsal. At 7 p.m. the theater and stage will be cleared. And at 8 p.m., 24 hours after the whole process began, ready or not, the curtain will go up and it will be show time. Geoff Riley will be the host for the evening.

"It's collaborative," Rodkey said. "It's still a production."

"It is not an improv show," Hostetler stressed. "For me it's a different art form. Another kind of theater."

Rodkey said she believes nothing like this has been tried in Southern Oregon before. Similar events have been held in New York. In one scenario, the playwright rides the subway to the end of line and back, writing all the while. When the train returns to its starting point, the playwright hands over the finished script. Twenty-four-hour plays are produced at the Yale theater department. The idea also has caught on in Indiana, where 24-hour play events are held twice a year to sold-out audiences.

"There's something exciting about creating without stopping," Hostetler said.

"There's no chance to ponder. It's immediate. As with Chinese calligraphy on rice paper, the brush has to be moving all the time."

Smyth agreed. "You have to go for it and not get caught up in editing. There's an element of fear. Will I make it? Will it be crappy? It's the theatrical equivalent of skydiving."

Rodkey thinks the event will involve the audience more, once they are made aware of the circumstances surrounding the creation of the shows. And she hopes the event draws a new audience that will spill over to the October new plays event.

Rodkey pointed out that the event is designed to be fun. It also will serve as a fundraiser for the Ashland New Plays Festival. Everyone involved in the event is volunteering.

Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for seniors and students. See www.ashiandnewplays.org or call 779-3000.