He may not be the golden god of "Almost Famous," but filmdom's Billy Crudup, fresh from a Public Theatre stint in Measure for Measure, was a broken-hearted song and dance man in Nicole Burdette's A While for The 24 Hour Plays benefit Sept. 24. The full day process of The 24 Hour Plays begins at 10 PM the night prior to performance. Typically, a group of fifty theatre artists (playwrights, directors, actors and designers) meet and are briefed and photographed. The writers are then left to their own wits to produce a ten-minute play. The following morning at 7 AM, the directors give the scripts a once-over, divvy them up and cast them. Actors make their entrance at 8 AM and rehearse from 9 AM on. The technical rehearsals run from 5 PM to 7:30 PM. Doors open at 7:45 and curtain rises at 8 PM and voila: six shows, all in a day's work. Proceeds go to Working Playground, a not-for-profit cultural organization that provides arts education programs.