Phillips Festival 2025
Phillips Festival returns for 8th year. Participation starts on Friday, Performance on Sat.
The annual Phillips Festival, an evening of short plays written, directed, and staged in 24 hours by Holyoke Community College alumni, students, staff, and friends, returns on Saturday, Sept. 20, for its eighth year.
The festival raises money for the Leslie Phillips Theater Fund for Arts and Education, honoring the legacy of Leslie Phillips, founder of the HCC theater program.
To produce the Leslie Phillips Festival, HCC alumni, students, staff and friends register to participate as writers, directors, actors, or members of the stage crew. This year, writers will meet with the actors on Friday, Sept. 19, the night before the show, to receive props, prompts, and character assignments. They have until 6 a.m. the next morning to write their plays. Two hours later, actors and directors meet for day-long rehearsals.
All the original plays will be performed that evening, Sept. 20, starting at 7:30 p.m., but the festivities begin at 6 p.m. in the theater lobby with a green carpet pre-show with alumni, friends, and fellow theater lovers.
Funds raised from the festival enable the HCC Theater Department to hold master classes, make capital improvements, and hire guest artists.
“The Phillips Theater Festival is a wonderful celebration of creativity, connection, and community,” said Natalia Castagno, HCC assistant director of alumni relations. “It offers our theater alumni a meaningful way to stay engaged with HCC, while also inviting local artists and supporters to help inspire and uplift the next generation of performers. The festival is a wonderful way to support the arts at HCC and carry on the legacy of one of HCC’s most beloved mentors.”
The Phillips Fund is administered by the HCC Foundation.
The festival was first organized in 2016 by HCC alumni working with now retired HCC theater professor Pat Sandoval '84 as a tribute to Phillips, who died in 1988 after inspiring legions of HCC students.
To participate in the festival as a writer, actor, director, or stagehand, please register at hcc.edu/phillips-signup or email Terry Hegarty at tlhegarty@yahoo.com
Festival tickets can be purchased in advance at hcc.edu/phillips-2025 or at the door.
General admission tickets are $15, students and seniors $10.
All proceeds benefit the Leslie Phillips Theater Fund for Arts and Education.
PHOTOS: Scenes from the 2024 Phillips Festival at HCC
