Seven, 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: Rushford-Peterson; Kingsland; Houston; Chatfield; Fillmore Central; Spring Grove; Mabel-Canton.The plays performed were (in the order that they were presented):
The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney
The Ugly Duckling by A.A. Milne
Cannibals by Heather Dundas
Why I Am A Bachelor by Conrad Seiler
Final Dress Rehearsal by Jack Frakes
Wade The Bird by Trista Baldwin
Chipped by Forrest Musselman
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When I first caught a glimpse of the list of shows to be performed, I wondered why anyone in their right mind would choose The Dining Room. I first read this A.R. Gurney play when I was in college, and it has stuck with me as the most boring piece of theatre that I've ever come across. This production did little to change my impression. Although well directed and moderately well acted, the choice of material comes into question. I did come to understand some things about the play that I don't think I understood when I read it 25 years ago, but I still had the feeling of... "So what?" It never engaged me. It never drew me in or gave me any interesting insight. There's definitely a talented cast here that needs some real help with their focus. The premise for the show is one dining room that we see through the ages, by the different families that have used it, and what they have used it for.
The Ugly Duckling by A.A. Milne was an interesting choice for this competition because the same show was performed last year (successfully) by one of the other schools. This was the only production of the day that I did not get to see. What I heard was that this production had a western theme setting (last year's was a fairy-tale kingdom setting).
As I directed the production of Cannibals by Heather Dundas, I cannot comment on it without bias. It was a very good production, well performed, though with room for improvement.
Why I Am A Bachelor, by Conrad Seiler, was an amusing work with a lot of potential. This production could have used a little tighter direction. The "Lecturer" was funny, but wandered aimlessly a little too often. The "couple in love" were a bit stiff and the young man seemed very uncomfortable on stage The "mother," "aunt" and "little sister" were all fine. The two" stage hands" also seemed to be uncontrolled and therefore distracted rather than added to the production. And...it's a small thing, and probably a matter of personal taste, but if I had a performer with a tattoo on his/her body and it was not appropriate for the part, I would have dressed the character differently or at the very least had him/her put a bandage over it. The "aunt's" tattoo above her ankle was not appropriate for the character and very distracting. The story of the play was a man lecturing on the benefits of being a bachelor by showing how dreadful marriage was, and how man usually got into such a predicament.
The Jake Frakes play, Final Dress Rehearsal, was another play that could have used some tighter direction to keep the play in focus. I think that plays which have a lot of apparent chaos need to be even more tightly directed to LOOK chaotic, and not left up to the actors (especially high school student actors) to run around randomly. This performance had just enough of the "run around" feel to it that it lacked cohesion. This is too bad because it certainly had what was probably the strongest male performance in the character of the "Director" as played by Derek Mulhern. The story was, as titled, supposed to be the "final dress rehearsal" of a sure-to-fail performance of Cinderella.
Wade The Bird, by Trista Baldwin, was a very high school appropriate show. In competition, it is nice to have students playing roles that are not really much of a stretch for them. Playing characters who are in high school is helpful. The direction here was nice, with some really great tableaux images and some great sound effects. Here, too, some of the staging could be tightened up. The 30+ second schene change in total blackout was WAY too long ... and unnecessary. Either give them a little light, or find a way to use a different area of the stage, rather than trying to clear and reset it. The story revolved around "Wade" who was kicked out of school for setting fire to something in school, then talked about killing himself, and dreams a female friend was having of Wade as a bird. If Derek Mulhern from the previous show was not clearly the best male actor, it would be because of the tremendous performance put in by Alan Wiltgen as "Wade."
The final performance of the day was Chipped by Forrest Musselman. This work is a pastiche of computer-related items (eBay, on-line relationships, viruses, spam, etc). I thought that the play had a lot of potential, and this school actually did one of the best jobs that they've done in recent years, but, like many of the plays during the day, lacked tightness, focus, and relyed on the script to carry them. When discussing this play with my own students later, their consensus was that the play was out-dated. I agree, but I did think that it could still have been staged in such a way as to have winning potential.
I actually had a hard time predicting how the judges would go with this. I did think that we were clearly the best ensemble cast, but then I guess I feel that way every year. I did think that Wade The Bird was well performed, though it was a little bumpy here and there, and that Final Dress Rehearsal had some really great performances (amid some really cheesy performances). I thought that Cannibals, Wade The Bird, and Final Dress Rehearsal would fight for the top two spots.
And I was correct.
1st place: Cannibals
2nd place: Wade The Bird
3rd place: Final Dress Rehearsal
These competitions are fun to watch and to see the level of talent in our high schools. Those shows that don't do as well, in my opinion, are those whose schools which are using directors who aren't familiar with theatre.
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