MSHSL Sub-Section 1-A One Act Play Festival

Six, one-act plays, produced and performed by area high schools as part of the Minnesota State High School League One Act Play Festival. The schools are: Chosen Valley; Fillmore Central; Houston; Kingsland; Mabel Canton: Rushford-Peterson. The plays are:

The Betrothed -- Jerome McDonough
The Ugly Duckling -- A.A. Milne
Juliet's Ghost -- Kenneth R. Preuss
Under Jeckyll's Hyde -- Tim Kelly
A Midsummer Night's Dream -- William Shakespeare
Time Flies & Lives of the Saints -- David Ives

The Betrothed was a dreadful work. As staged by this school, it was very unclear as to what was happening and who the people were. Poorly paced and an unfocused script this play was clearly the worst of the lot. The director could have done a much better job making the ideas clear and the cast most definitely could have used more rehearsal time.

The Ugly Duckling was well staged, and the cast did an admirable job. I felt that it lacked energy from many in the cast, though I respected the work done by the lead ("King"). The character of "Dulcibella" was well defined and maintained.

Juliet's Ghost was a meandering work that really lacked focus. There seemed to be no direction -- groups of kids gathered in clumps in the center of the stage and would step forward to deliver a line. I normally don't mind having females play male roles (it is often necessary in high school theatre), but why choose a play that requires six men to play boyfriends when you only have one boy in the cast? I would have seriously considered a different show seeing who I had audition.

I did not see Under Jeckyll's Hyde, though I heard it was quite good.

I directed the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, so it is difficult for me to be objective regarding the performance. I did think that my cast rushed through it much too quickly. A total of four minutes off their average time. Some were WAY too fast ("Oberon" and "Puck" in particular), but over-all I thought they did an very good job.

Time Flies & Lives of the Saints was a very interesting production. There actually seemed to be three short plays put together. None of them was really very interesting and relied too much on a one-note joke. The acting was fair and the direction fair. Nothing outstanding and nothing dismal.

Based on what I saw and taking in consideration my own bias, I would have chosen Midsummer for 1st place and Duckling for 2nd. Actual outcome: Jeckyll/Hyde - 1st; Duckling - 2nd.