The top two winners from the Sub-Section contests compete for the chance to move to the State festival. Participating schools were: Dover-Eyota; Fillmore Central; Kingsland; Rochester Lourdes; St. Charles; Stewartville; Triton; Zumbrota-Mazeppa.
Plays performed were:
Wiley and the Hairy Man -- Jack Stokes
Under Jeckyll's Hyde -- Tim Kelly
The Cry of Crows -- James Lee Bray
Amber Waves -- James Still
Line -- Israel Horovitz
Viet Rock -- Megan Terry, adapted by the cast and crew
That Was No Lady, That Was a Private Eye -- Dennis Snee
The Ugly Duckling -- A.A. Milne
Wiley and the Hairy Man was an interesting cross between theatre and reader's theatre. It was well done, but the very nature of the piece probably kept it from being outstanding in any way.
Under Jeckyll's Hyde looked like an embarassing romp. Most of the actors couldn't be understood, they seemed to try too hard to be funny, and they seemed to run around without purpose. The lead role did well as Mr. Jeckyll, but was much too stiff as Dr. Hyde.
The Cry of Crows was a powerful piece, well performed. The high school students did a remarkable job with an attempted rape scene, making many of us in the audience feel uncomfortable. The acting was extremely good, and certainly put this in contention for top spot.
Amber Waves was an interesting play about the death of farms in the 1980's. The acting was mostly good, but the writing lent itself to a one-note performance. The set was nice, but over-done. Rear-screen projections kept us occupied during scene changes (of which there were too many).
Israel Horovitz is a recognizable name for decent theatre, and his play Line was certainly one of the better written pieces. It also happened that it was one of the best performed as well -- a nice combination. Only five performers (four of them male!) and smooth direction had this play a crowd favorite. If I have any problem with Horovitz it's that I feel he writes stock characters, all of which were immediately recognizable to me on the stage here.
Viet Rock was an ambitious work, done in a style that I think is tailor made for State, avant garde theatre. I was impressed with the number of men in the show (seven), and their attempt to push themselves to doing something "different." I give them points for their attempt and goal, but at times what they were doing fell flat. Not surprisingly, much of what they were doing was a hit with the students that went to see this with me.
That Was No Lady, That Was a Private Eye was an attempt to combine humor, mystery, and feminism all in one. Unfortunately, nothing hit any strong moments, except for the stage hand who controlled the plant that withered and died on stage.
The Ugly Duckling looked lost on the larger, university stage. The role of the king was still strong, as in last week's performance, but the rest of the cast and staging got lost in the much more open stage.
My guess at the outcome was that it would be a toss-up between Line and The Cry of Crows. Acting and directing was strong in both. I was leaning toward Line because it was a stronger script.
Actual outcome -- a tie for first place, which then went to judges' preference, which meant: 1st place - Line; 2nd place - The Cry of Crows.
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