“In one day, you go through all the stages of a production,” says Keegan Theatre’s Joe Baker of the Bethesda Urban Partnership’s Play in a Day. “The first couple of hours are table reads, blocking, figuring stuff out. Then you sort of get into rehearsals until it gets closer to performance time. And now you’ve gotta jump into tech and those details. And then the performance itself is both opening night and closing night and the catharsis afterwards. The motto at Play in a Day is ‘the clock is ticking.”

It’s a full 24 hours, to say the least. Now in its 19th year, Play in a Day challenges six theater companies to write and produce original 10- to 15-minute plays based on prompts assigned at a kickoff meeting the night before. The results are funny, wild, and wacky — and frequently not suitable for children.

“They come to our office on the Friday before and we have a meeting where playwrights and directors from each team find out what their assigned themes, props, and line of dialogue they have to use in their play,” says Jason Liu, Bethesda Urban Partnership’s Marketing Events Manager. 

Past lines of dialogue have included famous Shakespearean quotes, lines from Dr. Seuss, and well-known zingers from films such as Mean Girls. Props have ranged from brooms to pickleball paddles — with the catch that theaters can’t use them as intended. Last year, for instance, Rorschach Theatre turned its paddles into “frying pans.”

Liu notes that “we offer them a table and a few chairs and stuff like that, but they can bring any additional props or costumes. Flying V in the past came in wearing a bunch of different astronaut outfits.”

The finished productions are presented at Imagination Stage before a live audience, as the companies compete for one of three $500 prizes. This year’s participants are Adventure Theatre MTC, Flying V, Keegan Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Rorschach Theatre, and We Happy Few. Michael Bobbitt, former artistic director of Adventure Theatre MTC, oversees the event.

Baker, a resident company member at Keegan, serves as his theater’s team leader. This will be his twelfth Play in a Day. He calls the event creatively invigorating — and a rare chance to entertain an audience with something that truly exists for one night only.

“At the end of the day, theater is a collaborative act,” says Baker. “And the audience is just as important to the show as the actors are.”

Play in a Day is Saturday, Feb. 28, at Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. Tickets are $20. Advance online sales close at 3 p.m. on Feb. 28. Remaining tickets will be sold at the door beginning at 7 p.m. For tickets and information, visit bethesda.org/play-in-a-day.