The theater department has a program where students, mostly juniors and seniors, write and produce their own one act plays. A one act play is exactly what it sounds like, a play that has only one act, usually lasting twenty to forty minutes long. The students in charge of the plays have no help writing and producing. Their works are entirely their own creations. They take a long time to complete, so let’s see how long.
The process of producing a play is a long one, Senior Reagan Ziegler said: “The idea for my one act actually started in November 2022, it takes me a really long time to write something like that. Producing this will take like, a month and a half. It takes about half as long as a regular production at Highlands.”
And while Ziegler has put a lot of work into the play, producing is hardly the most difficult part.
Ziegler said: “The hardest part is probably the writing process, just figuring out what people would like, what is interesting or entertaining and how to utilize your time really well.” Sense one acts are supposed to be, well, only one act, the students have to make sure their play is an appropriate length.
Junior Eva Sarakatsannis is writing her own one act play, said: “It’s called The Actor Games and it’s basically a spoof of the Hunger Games”, where stereotypes of actors are all competing to get the role.”
Sarakatsannis explained that there is a limit to the amount of people who get to help with the one act: “There are 16 actors and 4 crew members, which is the same amount for everyone else’s.” Compared to High School productions, this is not much.
There are five students who are writing and producing their own one act plays. Junior Eva Sarakatsannis whose play is called Actor Games, Senior Jonah Moore who wrote Bridging The Gap, Ems Varland with Lose Not Thy Head, Stella Howbower who created Plucky Pie Murder, and Senior Reagan Ziegler who produced Mansion. All of these are sure to be interesting and each should last twenty to forty minutes, so try to see them all if you get the chance.
The students just finished up the work of producing the one act play, and will begin rehearsing soon. According to Ziegler, some of them will be shown in May, so keep an eye out for the one act plays, and make sure to buy tickets when they come out.