The 24 Hour Plays celebrated the fifth anniversary of its Viral Monologues series March 31 in Brooklyn with a secret screening event showcasing new monologues written, rehearsed, and performed over 24 hours, along with live performances. The event kicked off a week-long celebration of the series.

The group launched the series in March 2020, intended to be a socially distanced version of the regular 24 Hour Plays programming. Publishing results on YouTube and Instragram, the series went on to involve more than 1,000 artists creating new work during lockdown, garnering more than six million views. The series has since been archived by the Library of Congress.

“Obviously, it was the really early days of all of us sitting around," said Hugh Dancy while hosting the March 31 event. "I don’t even know if we were calling it ‘the pandemic’ at that point, but all we really had in common was that we didn’t know what the hell was going on. It was way more questions than answers…we were just waiting. In that moment, [24 Hour Plays Artistic Director] Mark Armstrong’s email popped into my inbox and basically said, ‘I’m just trying to garner enthusiasm, if you have any interest in recording a monologue at home, just write back one word: yes.’ And I didn’t really think about it, I just wrote back YES!”

The evening also featured Denis O’Hare (American Horror Story), Santino Fontana (Frozen), Jeremy Shamos (Clybourne Park), Nina Hellman (Wet Hot American Summer), Morgan Siobhan Green (Hadestown), David Hull (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Ashby Gentry (My Life with the Walter Boys), David Lindsay-Abaire (Kimberly Akimbo), christopher oscar peña (Promised Land), Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside and Crazy), Warren Leight (Law and Order: SVU), Chisa Hutchinson (Amerikin), Michael Mitnick (Scotland, PA), Rachel Axler (Veep), and Lily Houghton (Forbidden Fruits).

Monologues from the March 31 show will be released on Instagram and YouTube this week. Visit 24HourPlays.org for more.