Five 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: Chatfield; Fillmore Central; Houston; Rushford-Peterson; Spring Grove.The plays are:
Happily Never After by T. Kelly
The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon by Don Zolidis
Mother Goosed by Jason Pizzarello
Crisis, Inc. by Daniel Munson
Four Little Words by Edward Finnegan
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Over-all, this was a pretty decent selection of plays.
Happily Never After was a cute fairy tale, suggesting that things DIDN'T end happily after after and perhaps the wrong pairings were made, but when they tried to match up different princes and princesses, it got even worse. The actors did a decent job but the direction lacked timing and build and energy.
I'd seen The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon the previous weekend, when it was outstanding. This production also lacked energy momentum, but held together cohesively.
Mother Goosed was the third fairy-tale type play of the day. The blocking was a bit tired and boring, but the actors hit all the right marks and did a wonderful job. As I described it to my students, "They didn't do anything wrong."
My own show, Crisis, Inc., was probably the best it had ever been. The kids peaked at the right time and hit all the right marks, though there was still room for improvement in places.
Another show that I saw the previous weekend, Four Little Words, did little to improve itself over the week. It did manage to get rid of some of the random up-staging, but vocal screeching and boring line delivery remained constant.
My top three were Crisis, Inc., Mother Goosed, and Brothers Grimm, in that order. Actual results ... 2nd place: Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon; 1st place (Sub-Section Champions): Crisis, Inc.
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