Another overwhelming success story was this year’s performance of THE 24 HOUR PLAYS ON BROADWAY, a one-night-only show to benefit Urban Arts Partnership, which brings arts education into New York City classrooms.

Gaby Hoffmann, Julia Stiles, Lynn Nottage, Kristoffer Diaz, Anthony Mackie

24 Actors, 6 Writers, 6 Directors in a rite of extreme live performance

In just 24 hours, some of entertainment’s biggest names like Sam Rockwell, Elijah Wood and Julia Stiles, together with six directors and two musical guests came up with six original short plays. The creative process began at 10PM on Sunday, November 14th, 2010 – the night before the show – when the crew gathered at the American Airlines Theatre.

After each of the cast members were fitted with a costume, prop and stage desires, each writer took the challenge to compose a ten-minute play until 7 AM the following morning, when the six directors returned to read and select their piece. A little later at 8 AM, the six casts met for the first time and, over the next 12 hours rehearsed and produced for the live show. At 8:00 PM, ink barely dry, the six new plays – interspersed with six musical acts – were performed for a live audience to a standing ovation on Broadway!

Gloria Estefan, America Ferrera

Sam Rockwell, Elizabeth Banks

Michael Ealy, Saffron Burrows

Participants of this year’s ’24 Hour Plays’ included actors Leslie Bibb, Rachel Dratch, Gloria Estefan, America Ferrera, Gaby Hoffman, Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Diane Neal, Lee Pace, Rosie Perez, Kyra Sedgwick, Sarah Silverman, Julia Stiles, Tracie Thoms, Nia Vardalos, Julie White, Alicia Witt, Elijah Wood; playwrights Kristoffer Diaz, Mike Doughty, Rajiv Joseph, Lynn Nottage, Theresa Rebeck; and musical guest M. Ward.

Montblanc, sponsor of the THE 24 HOUR PLAYS ON BROADWAY 2010

For the 4th year in a row, Montblanc has sponsored The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway in support of Urban Arts Partnership to “encourage arts patronage and proper funding of arts education initiatives for aspiring young artists,” (Jan-Patrick Schmitz, President & CEO Montblanc North America).  This year, Elizabeth Cruz Cortes, a graduate of the Urban Arts Partnership debuted her winning 10 minute play “We Don’t Have to Talk About That” during the November 15th performance.