Imagine, in the span of only 24 hours, choosing, planning and performing a musical in front of a live audience.

That’s what fourth-year theater student Jordan Aragon will be putting himself through starting Saturday at 8 p.m., along with a whole cast and crew composed of members of Hooligan Theater Company and Act III Theatre Ensemble.

Sunday night will be the fifth annual performance of “24-Hour Musical.” The show helps raise money for No Limits, a charity organization that helps deaf and hard-of-hearing children learn to read and write at grade-school levels.

“It’s tense to a certain point, but it’s also fun,” Aragon said. “You know that you’re going to have a lot of material to learn in a 24-hour period. So you gear yourself up in whatever way you can.”

The charity works with the children to help them better handle daily activities and to build their self-confidence, said Joan Cummins, codirector of the show and a fourth-year theater student. The cast and crew visit the charity on the weekends leading up to the performance, in order to get a feel for just who it is that they’re helping.

“It’s really fun to get to hang out with 8-year-old (children) or 5-year-old (children) for 2 hours,” Cummins said.

The crew plays theater games with the children to help them build their confidence, Cummins added.

This year’s performance is one of the biggest productions in the event’s history in terms of the size of the cast and crew, said Jen Fingal, co-producer of the show and a fourth-year theater studies student.

Fingal, however, who oversees almost every aspect of the show – including securing rehearsal space, communicating with No Limits and making sure that everyone stays in contact – said that she’s more excited than nervous about the upcoming show.

“It’s like you’re having a giant sleepover with all of your student theater friends, but you don’t sleep, and you put on a musical, and that’s more fun anyways,” Fingal said.

Of course, part of the fun of attending the performance is to see if the cast and crew really can manage to pull off a full musical with only 24 hours of preparation, Fingal said.

“One of my friend’s parents compared it to a NASCAR race,” Aragon said. “You go because it’s fun, but you’re also hoping that somebody’s going to crash and burn. And often that is what happens.”

This will be the fourth year that Aragon will participate in the musical, and he said he actually enjoys himself more when the group selects a musical with which he’s not familiar.

He also said part of the reason he’s especially excited this year is because it’s likely they will choose a musical he’s never done before.

At the end of the day, regardless of whether or not the show goes off without a hitch, the cast and crew has raised money for a charity and all of the ticket fees go toward No Limits.

“No Limits is an amazing organization. I can’t sing their praises high enough,” Fingal said. “(The musical is) an incredibly fun event. It’s fun to watch; it’s fun to be in; it’s fun to do. And it’s especially fun because we are raising money for such a great cause.”