Five area high schools vie for the two positions that move on to the Sectional competition.
Schools participating, and their directors, were (all southeastern Minnesota):
Spring Grove -- Sarah J. Holland
Rushford-Peterson -- Forrest Musselman
Houston -- Amalie Niethammer
Mabel-Canton -- Lindsey Harman
Fillmore Central -- Jackie Whitacre
Plays competing were:
"The Real Inspector Hound" by Tom Stoppard
"Take Five" by Westley M. Pederson
"A Play With Words" by Peter Bloedel
"Deux Ex Machina" - an original production
"The Day Grandma Got Mad And Squashed the Tomatoes" by Bradley Hayward
Judges were: Kathy Keech, Mark Reisetter, David Stadum
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I enjoy going to see the high school one act plays. I like seeing how young talent is nurtured and given an appreciation of the arts.
In general, we are not supposed to know which school is performing, and frankly, I can't remember, though at the time, I was aware of who was performing.
The first show of the day, Tom Stoppard's "The Real Inspector Hound," struggled. Stoppard's humor is not always direct, and it takes a lot of attention to the script to capture it. Stoppard is tough to produce at the high school level, and I don't think this school was up for the task.. Simple, basic acting and directing skills plagued the production. Stumbling over lines, lack of focus, not staying in character. More rehearsal time and more attention to detail would have helped, followed by a better understanding of what Stoppard was doing with his script.
"Take Five" by Westley M. Pederson is a commonly produced play in the high school one act competitions. It takes place on a stage, presumably before a rehearsal, but ultimately during a performance. Audience members come on stage and stage hands become actors. Lots of wackiness and zany opportunities. It is generally a crowd pleaser. This school has some strong actors, and generally good direction, though perhaps a lack of consistency. If the male lead actor is going act over-the-top, his 'wife' should be equally over-the-top. Instead, she came across as very real. Generally a good thing in any other circumstance. The 'audience member' character brought the production down with a very laid-back, slow style that had no enegry.
I like the general idea of "A Play With Words" by Peter Bloedel, although it really was nothing more than 30 minutes of puns and plays on words. The actors did a very good job, but the direction seemed lacking to me. Why have one character deliver every pun out to the audience? No one else acted in that style. Good choices of costumes, except...why put 'The Creeps' in bright, day-glow colors? Aren't they supposed to be 'creepy' and not fun?
"Deux Ex Machina" was a mixture of styles, poking fun at a lot of the types of plays that we generally see in the high school one acts. It centers around a school that's rehearsing a show, but their theatre has been converted to a teacher's lounge, so they have to work around the soda machine and the occasional teacher on break. Generally fun, it lacked a cohesive story, or even a cohesive idea. Is it about these students wanting to rehearse a show? Is it about product placement? Is it about a pop machine going rogue? Is it about none of these things? The cast was high energy and fully committed to their parts, which was wonderful.
Bradley Hayward is a relative newcomer in the high school theatre circuit. His "The Day Grandma Got Mad and Squashed the Tomatoes" was a new play to me, and sadly it was a bit weak. Some of the jokes didn't quite carry, or seemed forced. While the acting and directing weren't very strong, the script didn't help (unlike "Take Five" in which, the script carried the production).
If I were to judge this competition, I would have given first place to "Deux Ex Machina" with a tie for second place between ""Take Five" and "A Play With Words." I think I would have given the edge to "A Play With Words" because the students had a more consistent acting presence, even though I might have enjoyed "Take Five" more.
Actual winners were:
1st Place: "Deux Ex Machina"
2nd Place: "A Play With Words"
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