Insomnia Theater Puts On Final Performance of the School Year

BY: IRISH HAINES

Insomnia Theater performed its last show of the school year, featuring a Disney theme. With titles like “The Little Mansplainer” and “Toy Story: Out of the (Adult) Toy Box,” the show was anything but the classic, family-friendly routine.

As the night went on, comedic twists were put on famous children’s cartoons like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Phineas and Ferb,” and “The Lion King.”

Insomnia Theater is an interactive club at Temple University that specializes in putting together an entire series of short plays in 24 hours. This includes auditioning, writing, casting, directing, rehearsing, and designing, until it’s time to perform the skits at The Underground in the Howard Gittis Student Center. Each show has a different theme, encompassing anything from “Netflix genres” to “Anything but boring board games.”

At 7 p.m. the night before the show, actors meet up to audition for writers and directors. After the production staff sees what it has to work with, writers decide on a play to put on and cast it overnight, allowing for no sleep.

The following morning, everyone in the club meets up at the Bell Tower to begin planning, rehearsing, and making props until 7 p.m., when doors open for the show. The price of admission is $3.

Rhiannon Hickey and Owen Kibbey, both freshman who starred in the night’s Peter Pan-inspired play, “Neverland Clock Co.,” agreed that the show’s crudeness may seem shocking at first, but it adds to its uniqueness and humor.

“The first show, I guess we didn’t really [expect the vulgarity],” Hickey said. “Then we kind of saw where it went from there, and then you realize, like, ‘Okay, this is the kind of people I have to cater to and it’s funny.’”

John Boysen, vice president of Insomnia Theater, was more than pleased with the turnout.

“I think today was one of the best shows we had all year, probably one of my most favorite shows we ever had or I have ever been a part of,” Boysen said.

At the play’s conclusion, some members of the club thanked the graduating seniors, including the president, Benjamin McGee.