One Acts: a new tradition

The One Act Festival is a new tradition started at here at WHHS. WHHS has many traditions and celebrations that have been around for a while. This is a new one started by the theater department. The One Act Festival is a series of different productions completely produced by students. All the directors, actors and crew behind the spotlight are students.

Directors are usually thought of the people that call “scene”. But directors have a plethora of responsibilities, from coming up with the artistic view of the story to choosing the cast. They also have to make sure that their vision is clearly communicated with the actors and crew so that they can all reach that goal of putting on a spectacular production together. 

SENIOR Talia Raider-Roth is the director of the production “The Actor’s Nightmare” which is about a boy named George who wanders onto a stage and is then told that an actor has been in a car accident and that he must replace him immediately. But George is the only person who knows what play is being performed. And after missed cue after missed cue, the play switches and switches until George has lost all contact with his fellow actors. 

This is Raider-Roth’s first time being a director. Before, she has mainly acted, and her favorite of the previous shows she has starred in, is “Ragtime.” “It’s been really educational and really nice because I’ve mainly done the acting side of theater here, so being able to approach it from a different viewpoint and also directing my peers has been both challenging but really helpful,” Raider-Roth said.

Every director wants people to come and see the show that they, along with the cast and crew, have worked so hard to put together. Raider-Roth thinks people should come and see the One Act Festival because “it’s a really nice chance to see what your friends can do and what people are capable of doing when they work together. And that you don’t have to have years of doing theater to be able to put on such an awesome, student-led thing.” But Raider-Roth isn’t the only person who is playing the role of director.

SENIOR Bettina Ernst is the director for the play “Terminal Lucidity: A Dada Inspired Feminist Scream.” According to Ernst, the play is about “nine different female characters who are all connected by the actions of a man who is a sexual abuser” and “their different perspectives and opinions on the events and sort of on the events of this man’s actions.”

As a director, problems will occur and it’s up to them to fix them. The pragmatic way that Ernst approaches the problems that might come up on the spot makes it easier to solve them and keep it moving. “We’ve had to move around a lot to rehearse so just making sure that you’re always thinking on your feet ready to be flexible and ready to move things around,” Ernst said.

There’s also director Sophia Rooksberry, ‘22. She is the director for the junior high One Act play, “Alice.” “Alice” is just as one might think. It’s essentially an adaptation of the popular story “Alice In Wonderland.”

Pressure is a normal thing that all people face. And when one is the director, the pressure is on them to make sure that everything gets done how it’s supposed to. Without any example to look off of for help it’s even harder. But this has been an experiment or trial and error situation. “This is the test run basically, so we’re figuring things out as we go and there’s been no precedent for us to work off of,” Rooksberry said.

All the directors, cast members, and crew members have been working very hard putting these shows together. The One Act Festival will be in the Rick Steiner Black Box Theater on Dec. 6-8. Tickets can be purchased here.