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Photos courtesy of Needham Community Theatre. Directors Hannah Novack (left) and Marielle Sciore are bringing a 24-hour musical to Needham Community Theatre's stage, with a goal of growing the local dramatic arts community.
6-05-2025 4:21pm
Needham Community Theatre Reveals "Grease" as NCT's First Ever 24-Hour Musical on Sunday, June 8th (Update)
Darlene Cancell
Editor
Editor's Update: On Saturday, June 7th, Needham Community Theatre has revealed that the 24-hour musical will be "Grease," from the book, music, and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, and with use of the song, "You're the One that I Want," by arrangement with Robert Stigwood. What follows this update is a Westwood Minute article by Maddie Mulligan, published before NCT made known the identity of the play to the cast and public.
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Needham Community Theatre Hosts First Ever 24-Hour Musical on Sunday, June 8th
By Maddie Mulligan
Eighty actors auditioned for the Needham Community Theatre’s upcoming production. Forty-four received parts. Not a single one knows what musical they have been cast in.
On June 8th, the NCT is putting on its first ever 24-hour musical. The actors will be told what musical they are performing the morning of Saturday, June 7th, and by Sunday night at 7:00 p.m., they must have their lines and dance numbers memorized for the one night only show.
The idea originated with directors Marielle Sciore and Hannah Novack. Both having grown up immersed in theater, Sciore and Novack discovered the NCT as a way to continue their acting interests after college. Meeting when acting in The Music Man, Sciore and Novack became fast friends, later acting together in Fiddler on the Roof while also handling the production’s publicity and outreach.
Learning to love all sides of theater after years spent on stage, Sciore and Novack jumped at the opportunity to direct when the NCT board approached them to create a workshop or show. It was brainstorming until 4 a.m. where the idea for the 24-hour musical was born.
“After staying up very, very late, we just thought about what can we do that would be intentional and worthwhile and be really inclusive and accessible to people that maybe haven't come into contact with Needham Community Theatre before?” said Sciore.
That’s when Novack brought up her previous experiences with 24-hour musicals in college. With a goal of growing the community without the same normal level of commitment—four months and three weekends of shows—Sciore and Novack want above all to provide an enriching experience for the actors.
Rather than creating a show and leaving the community building up to chance, Sciore and Novack aim to create a community first and let the show be made from it. The hope is that actors will want to keep coming back to this community that often ends up being more important than the acting itself.
“When we think about why we do theater and why we keep coming back, it's not because you're always getting the role you want. It's not because it's your dream show every time. Ultimately, it's the people that make you keep coming back,” said Novack.
With the goal of fostering a community, Sciore and Novack have made sure to emphasize collaboration throughout the entire production process. Whether it be between themselves and the other 20 members of the production team or with the actors when it comes time to rehearse, Sciore and Novack see finding a middle ground as the perfect way to work through a 24-hour musical.
Though the actors won’t be able to spend the same amount of time as they normally would with their characters, they are still encouraged to make strong character choices if they choose to. In a give and take process, Sciore and Novack look forward to seeing where the actors take the production, the directors wanting to uplift and appreciate those decisions.
“We have an incredibly talented, hard working, driven group of people who are going to be on this stage, and we trust them wholeheartedly to take our direction and run with it,” said Novack.
Using the mantra of "committing to the bit,” Sciore and Novack were pleasantly surprised during the auditioning process to find a host of actors who would bring it all and roll with the punches. A very inclusive cast with both age and experience, the actors have all waited in anticipation to get to work. Only receiving a simple congratulations message and logistics, the actors have been left to build up nerves and excitement for this upcoming weekend.
Despite the obvious challenges of putting on a musical with only a day to learn and rehearse, Sciore also highlighted how difficult it can be to quell a perfectionist mindset. Many actors strive for perfection in their performances, but Sciore outlined how the actors—as well as everyone involved in the production—must let go of perfectionism.
“What's a really important thing for us to remind them is at the end of the day, it's not going to be picture perfect. It'll be our version of perfect,” said Sciore.
Both with tremendous appreciation for theater, Sciore and Novack want the audience to come away from their 24 Hour Musical with more of an understanding of what it means to be in theater. Wanting to spread the joy that theater has given them their whole lives, Sciore and Novack view their musical as a way to create the camaraderie of theater that they see as simply life changing.
“I have never felt so seen and understood as when I'm in the theater space, and at the end of the day that can look like any different kind of production. And so giving that opportunity to as many people as possible in this capacity is what it's all about. And that has made it, made the best parts and the hardest parts, all worth it,” said Novack.
Tickets for the performance can be bought at this link: https://www.ticketstage.com/T/NCT.
Thanks to Maddie Mulligan, student at Boston College, and head editor for the arts section of The Heights, an independent, student-run newspaper, for contributing this article to Westwood Minute.
