As high-risk entertainment, live performances of five short plays in which the directors and actors read scripts for the first time just 11 hours before curtain can invite an almost gladiator-like feel to a theatrical evening. When one imagines how many things could possibly go wrong in a typical live theater performance after weeks of preparation, the 24-hour slam takes on a daredevil character. Hardly dull, the event crackles with plenty of nervous energy — from the theater company and the audience — in the hope that the evening will pass without any casualties, creative or otherwise.

The Plan-B Theatre Company survived last night’s SLAM in good form with an appreciative audience of more than 500 in the sold-out Jeanne Wagner Theatre in the Rose Performing Arts Center. And, considering they had just seven hours of rehearsal, the 25 actors and five directors did an exceptional job, particularly in communicating complex story and character elements. The honest — often earthy — performances crackled with the primitive thrills of the unexpected.

Indeed, the playwrights managed to pack complex, multifaceted story lines into scripts that ran perhaps 15 or so pages maximum. Just 24 hours before the performance, each writer was given a title, a cast of five, the set backdrop, and a limited list of available props and sound effects. Scripts were due 13 hours later at 9 a.m. on the day of the performance.

All five plays proved workable but two stood out in particular. Kathleen Cahill’s Hootenanny cleverly adapted musical elements to cue socially-charged metaphors about immigration reform and the punitive consequences for those who tenaciously hold on to the notion that the “rule of law” is the only factor that matters in this debate. Cahill’s musical theater background appropriately infused the ironical elements evident in her short one-act play. Cahill’s coherent script sparkled with smart dialogue, a well-balanced blend of comedy and pathos.

Into The Black by Matthew Ivan Bennett, the young playwright whose work will comprise Plan-B’s entire repertoire next season, proved to be the most profoundly spiritual offering of the evening. The cast did remarkably well with Bennett’s intricate weave of metaphors of the woods and wolves plumbed from the depths of Christian gnosticism. Working from an outline that he created in less than an hour, Bennett generated a coherent, provocative script positioned in its commitment to chronicle one’s spiritual journey — an impressive effort that certainly merits being expanded into a larger play.

Cort Brinkerhoff’s “Oh My Goth” tackled several big-story themes of religion, same-sex couples, and artificial insemination. The playwright, who admitted that he had absolutely no familiarity with the Goth tradition and was a bit puzzled by how he would incorporate the dark double archways in his set backdrop, nonetheless managed a substantive script that, again, was well executed in the hands of the capable cast of actors assigned to him. The title arose in the matter of a pun at the end of the play but the real story line was left unresolved. Brinkerhoff’s thematic ideas merit further exploration but arguably so with a different set and title.

Eric Samuelson’s Burning Desire worked quite well, featuring a dying woman, the angel of death, and the troubling relationships with her family members. Despite the abrupt ending, Samuelson’s play provided a compelling, worthwhile story given its economical, slender frame. And, in the absence of sufficient back-story elements, the actors dispatched the dialogue with believable portrayals.

Debora Threedy’s Jewel in the Crown was playful almost mischievously so, conjuring up memories of myths, childhood play and stories ideally suited to the castle scenery. As an opener for the hour-long performance, the play set the right tone as the actors relished their comic bits for an obviously pleased audience.

Jerry Rapier, producing director, and company have much to celebrate as the 2007-2008 season enters its final weeks. Last night’s SLAM, once again, revealed a theatrical company rich in creative talent on stage and behind the curtain, quite comfortable in taking risks to make the arts as freely accessible as possible to a community that is opening up its perspectives. This year’s venue was more than double the size of previous SLAMs and it sold out.

Audience members also were just as enthusiastic about purchasing the new Plays Behind the Zion Curtain anthology of eight, original, full-length works that have been offered on Plan-B’s stage. The book, published by Juniper Press and Oxide Books, includes the works of three SLAM playwrights — Bennett, Samuelsen, and Threedy.

Plan-B will close out its 2007-2008 season with the Utah premiere of Martin Moran’s The Tricky Part, a one-man production which tells the author’s experience as a teenager who had a sexual relationship with an older man. Moran’s play, written 30 years after the fact, was develped in 2003 at the Sundance Theatre Lab. Although Moran regularly performs the play, the Utah production, directed by Rapier, will feature local actor David Spencer. The play opens May 30 with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Rose Wagner’s Studio Theater. The run ends June 15.