Theatre Unbound's 24 Hour Play Project: You choose the secret ingredients

New plays for the new year.

Less than a week from now, Theatre Unbound will be mounting seven brand new little plays - written, rehearsed and performed all within the span of a single day - the latest 24 Hour Play Project.

But first, the writers need to know what they’re writing about.

That’s where us forward-thinking users of the internet come in.

Currently online is a ballot by which you can register your preference to the items to be included as common elements in all of the 24 Hour Plays. How the writers choose to include them is up to them. But what they will be is up to you.

Follow this link, or the link on the bottom of this page of the Theatre Unbound website, and make your choice.

Each play must include one of each from the following categories - an object, an emotion, a line of dialogue, and something random.

Would you like to see a play that somehow includes... a big check, a cauldron, a cheese head, a curling iron, a fanny pack, a garage door opener, a handkerchief, a hot water bottle, ice skates, an oversized toothbrush, a poisoned apple, a rubber chicken, or a tool box?

It’s up to you.

Would you like one or all of the characters to be overcome by a feeling of... cheerfulness, despair, drunken pride, embarrassment, ennui, giddiness, hauteur, humiliation, intrigued revulsion, love, maniacal glee, righteous anger, or shock?

You can inflict this upon them.

How’d you like someone to say...

“Does everyone have a puppet that needs one?”

"Go now and leave me!"

“I don't think she gave out the little people yet.”

“If there's one thing we're not, it's optimistic.”

“I'm actually a fount of ridiculous things that belong on T-shirts.”

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inqusition!"

"Oh, look! A tricky priest!!!"

“Oh shaw!”

"Quick, hide the sausage! I cannot believe I just said that."

"So, that could've gone much better."

“Sometimes too much information makes you a bitter person.”

“There's no reprieve for sweaty.”

or

"Why does everyone hate me on Wednesdays?"

You can put those words in their mouth.

And for something random, how about... the Canadian National Anthem, a character who speaks only in quotes from the film “Casablanca,” the color red, an enforced dance, a ladybug, Lot 666, a nut eating contest, something furry, the song "The Girl from Ipanema," the stage direction “repeat, in miniature,” the notorious “wilhelm scream,” a wind storm, a witch who says she is not a witch, or yoga?

Well, you can shoehorn that into the play as well.

Voting closes on Monday, January 3rd, 2011, so make your selections quickly.

And then drop by Hamline University on Saturday, January 8th at 8pm to see how it all turned out.

Happy voting.