Check out Tony winner Marcia Gay Harden, Broadway alum Jon Rua, stage favorite Zosia Mamet, and more performers who joined the June 23 edition of The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues.
Above, Harden (God of Carnage) performs One Normal Thing by David Lindsay-Abaire. All monologues aired on IGTV and YouTube and are available to view through June 27.
Joining the trio of performers were Anna Baryshnikov, Jonathan Burke, Mia Ellis, Ato Essandoh, Mark Ivanir, Jamie Neumann, Saycon Sengbloh, and Jeorge Bennett Watson.
Monologue writers for this edition were Zakiyyah Alexander, Jessica Goldberg, David Lindsay-Abaire, Kenneth Lonergan, Sam Marks, Cat Miller, Lina Patel, Jonathan Payne, Christopher Oscar Peña, Liza Jessie Peterson, and Steve Yockey.
This week's videos benefit Release Aging People In Prison, which works to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice via the release from prison of older and aging people and those serving longer and life sentences. Click here to learn more.
The process began June 22 at 6 PM, when actors shared orientation-style videos to allow the writers to get to know them better. By 7 PM, writers and actors were paired, and writers went to work crafting original pieces. Actors received their monologues the following morning and filmed their performances throughout the day. The 24-hour cycle was completed with the launch of the first video at 6 PM ET.
Another recent edition of Viral Monologues was titled “Fists Up/Underlying Conditions,” to raise money for Communities United For Police Reform. A May 12 collaboration on the intersection of COVID-19 and incarceration featured Rebecca Naomi Jones and André De Shields, while another challenged performers to present a musical monologue, with Daveed Diggs, John Gallagher, Jr., Sarah Steele, and more joining in.
Watch Raúl Esparza, J. Smith-Cameron, More, in Latest Edition of The 24-Hour Plays: Viral Monologues
Coleman Ray Clark and Madelyn Paquette serve as producers for the series, with Mark Armstrong as artistic director.
