Daily News

Third Annual 24-hour Theater Festival Slated for Sept. 29 at HCC

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Community College theater alumni, together with students from the HCC Theater Department, will gather once again this fall to put on an evening of one-act plays written in just 24 hours.

The HCC 24-hour theater festival, renamed the HCC Phillips Festival this year in memory of Leslie Phillips, the late HCC drama teacher who inspired the festival’s creation, will be presented Saturday, Sept. 29 at 8 p.m. in the Leslie Phillips Theater in HCC’s Fine & Performing Arts Building. 

Like the previous two festivals, the third is a benefit show, and all proceeds will go toward the Leslie Phillips Fund for Theater Arts and Education at Holyoke Community College.

This event was first organized in 2016 by HCC alumni working with HCC theater professor Pat Sandoval as a tribute to Phillips, founder of the HCC drama program, who died in 1988.

“Leslie Phillips was a dedicated faculty member and played a pivotal role in the creation of the HCC Theater Department,” said Lisa Poehler, a Holyoke native, resident of Springfield, and one of the organizers of the event. “In her memory, we invite everyone to join in this celebration of the arts for the benefit of current and future HCC theater students.”

HCC alumni along with current HCC students will meet on Friday, Sept. 28 to begin writing and rehearsing the one-act plays they will perform the following night. Anyone who would like to participate in this year’s festival can contact the HCC Alumni Players at [email protected] or on the group’s Facebook page.

Tickets for the show are $15 for general admission and $10 for students, seniors, HCC faculty, and staff.  To order tickets, call (413) 552-2485 or visit hcc.edu/alumnievents.