2009 SUB-SECTION 1A ONE-ACT PLAY FESTIVAL -- MSHSL

Rushford-Peterson High School Theatre

Area high schools compete with one act plays. the top two move on to the next round.

Schools in this round/director are:
Houston/Gwynne Mishler
Mabel-Canton/Lindsey Harman
Fillmore Central/Jackie Whitacre
Spring Grove/Sarah J. Hooand
Rushford-Peterson/Forrest Musselman

Plays are:
"The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury
"Caution: Politrics" by Alan Haehnel
"Relative Strangers" by Sheri Wilner
"This is a Test" by Stephen Gregg
"A Jury of Her Peers" by Burton Bumgarner

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This was probably one of the tougher years for sub-section. Most of the plays were to-notch.

"The Veldt" was well put-together and had lots of great effects, but the acting was weak.

"Caution: Politrics" was a delightful play. Well-written and well performed, this had a lot going for it. What it lacked, was some change. It was delivered a bit even. Could have used a bit more direction.

I have to be honest and say that I don't remember much about "Relative Strangers." It must have been the weakest of the shows that day as I can remember all the rest.

"This is a Test" is a popular play and I saw it performed nearly flawlessly at State a few years ago. This performance was weak and sloppy. It relied on a funny script to carry it. the lead male was okay, but the rest of the cast didn't seem to know their cues.

"A Jury of Her Peers" was a strange, slow-moving play, but it was executed quite well. Actors were strong and direction clear. A well done play.

My choice for top two would have been: "Caution: Politrics" and "A Jury of Her Peers." The two shows moving on were, in order, "The Veldt" and "This is a Test".

THREE RIVERS ONE ACT CONFERENCE -- Wabasha-Kellogg High School

The Three Rivers Conference One-Act Play Competition. Schools compete, in preparation for the more important Sub-Section competition the following weekend.

Schools and plays at this meet:

Lewiston-Altua -- "Conflict" by Wade Bradford
Rushford-Peterson -- "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury
Fillmore Central -- "A Jury of Her Peers" by Burton Bumgarner
Dover-Eyota -- "Oprah Made Me Do It" by Bradley Hayward
St. Charles -- "Art" by Yasmina Reza
Kingsland -- "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" by Celeste Raspanti
Wabasha-Kellogg -- "A Play With Words" by Peter Bloedel
Southland -- "Circumvention" by Anton Dudley

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A tough, full day of plays, with some tough choices to make for the judges. I did not see the final play, by Southland, but did see all the rest. None of them stood out as being exceptional and ready for competition.

Overall, I'd have to say I enjoyed Dover-Eyota's the most. Good script, and a very good job of acting with the script. The end got a bit bogged down -- both with the script and the acting (over-doing it), but I felt it was the best performance for the day.

St. Charles, always a strong contender, had a fairly solid show, but the acting choices seemed very inappropriate. These girls did not seem to fit their roles and I never sensed that the play grew.

Wabasha-Kellogg seemed adept, but unpolished. Sadly, I think that this is as good as they get, which isn't bad, but it's not strong enough to take them to State. A little too much random blocking and straight lines, for my tastes.

Lewiston-Altura's showing was not bad, but needed a stronger hand at direction. Straight lines and lack of focus (and upstaging/mugging) will keep them from moving on.

Rushford-Peterson was maybe the most ambitious but weakest of what I saw. Lots of technology (video and sound) on a nice set, but someone forgot to work with the actors. Of all the actors on stage, I could only hear and understand two of them without straining, and one of them I couldn't hear at all. Blocking appeared random on their tight set. Characters seemed good, strong, but without any vocal quality it is hard to say for certain.

Fillmore Central's play bored me. That's all. Just bored me. I couldn't wait for it to be over. No momentum. No peaks or valleys. Just slow. Painful. Talking.

But for me, perhaps the dullest play of the day was Kingsland's holocaust piece. Perhaps I'm just a little cranky about it, but I am tired of 'high drama' holocaust plays in the festival. Seems there's always at least one. This one played that drama from the very start, even when the children were supposed to be at their happiest, so it had nowhere to go.

I'm still not sure how I would rank these plays, but the top three for me would be: Dover-Eyota, St. Charles, and ... a tie for Wabasha-Kellogg, Rushford-Peterson, Fillmore Central, and maybe even Lewiston-Altura. None were strong, and none really deserved a first place.

Actual results:
1st - St. Charles
2nd - Wabasha-Kellogg
3rd - Dover-Eyota
4th - Fillmore Central
5th - (tie) Lewiston-Altura, Rushford-Peterson, Kingsland
8th - Southland

"A PERFORMANCE OF THE ABSURD" -- Winona State University Department of Theatre and Dance

Samuel Beckett's Play and Theatre II.

Director: Ryan Hawkins
Performers: Maggie Jansse, Mallory Prise, Kate Billison, Ryan Hawkins, Kristen Payette, Anna Kuhnen

An evening of absurdist theatre.

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I'm a big fan of absurdist theatre, but this evening didn't grab me as I had hoped. Even theatre of the absurd has to be done carefully, and with precision -- perhaps more-so since it doesn't have the easier-to-follow structure and story-line.

Unfortunately, this student-directed series of short plays seemed to be about a series of tableaus rather than a carefully constructed set of plays. I never got a sense that the actors understood what they were doing -- they were reciting strange lines. What is the purpose? Why are they saying what they're saying?

It was a tough evening to sit through.