This year’s one-act play is titled “A Game” by Dennis E. Noble. Our first performance was at a conference Festival at LeSueur High School on Saturday, January 14, 2023. We had an amazing performance and saw some incredible one-act plays. To top off the day, Lillyan, Kira and Chloe received All-Conference Awards!
This production is boldly simple at first glance and features four (4) main characters; Dr. Henning (G. Schmidt), Baker (L. Nelson), Edson (A. Franck), and Carter (K. Weverka). However, don't let the simplicity of the set and costumes fool you, the serious and complex mind games paired with an unexpected ending will keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Our next performance is on Saturday, January 28, 2023, in Mayer.
Gabi Schmidt – Dr. Henning
My name is Gabi and I play Dr. Henning. This character is very fun to play because I get to try a lot of new things, like fake fighting. Being in the one-act has been a really awesome experience. When we had the festival last Saturday, it was SO COOL because I got to see these awesome plays. For example, one of the plays was about this stuffed animal that gets cycled through owners and it was very good. Performing is thrilling and I think everyone should experience being on stage at least once in their life. I love doing this and being with friends. I am so grateful that I am a freshman and they let me do this!
Lillyan Nelson – Baker
My name is Lillyan and I play Baker. Baker is a character who thinks that the experiment that Dr. Henning is performing is kind of a waste of her time. She is pretty sarcastic and as the conversations between Carter, Edson, and Baker go on and get more intense she allows the experiment to get to her and she gets very protective over her door and what she has on her property. She looks up to Edson in a way because she is clearly the smartest one there other than Dr. Henning. She needs a lot of reassurance in her thoughts and when she makes statements on her own she tends to need to ask either Carter or Edson if that statement was correct or not.
Ava Franck – Edson
My name is Ava Franck and I play Edson in this year’s One Act. Edson is quite intelligent and witty and starts off very sweet. As everything progresses and tension begins to form between the three test subjects, Edson becomes more aggravated and territorial. I definitely feel like Edson and Baker have some sort of unspoken bond, and they like to gang up on Carter because she’s always grasping for some sort of upper hand. This is the second one act I’ve done, I was an understudy for one of the roles last year. It is always so fun to spend entire days watching plays, performing, and spending time with those who are also participating - specifically this cast and crew. I enjoyed performing with them so much.
Kira Weverka - Carter
My name is Kira Weverka and I play Carter. Carter is a very fun character to play because she switches from being super upbeat and fun into an emotional mess. Being in the One Act itself is so fun, besides just performing, the people in One Act are so amazing. All of them are so supportive and kind.
Description from the author:
The basis of this production is three women accept an invitation to take part in an experiment—a game in which a small room is divided into three equal areas—one for each person. At intervals they recite a slogan: "This is my land. It is mine. It is beautiful, and it is mine." As the game progresses, we see the drive that makes each human want to possess more than his neighbors—a drive that causes hatred ... and starts wars. Noble had this to say about his play: "A Game begins as farce and ends in deadly earnest. I realize that it is unusual to shift from one mood completely to its opposite, but it was in this move from comic to the serious that I hoped to keep the characters simple in order to hinder emotional identification with them. The characters exist in this play in the service of an idea, and I wished that the dramatization of that idea would strike the viewer hard. And it is in the violent impact of the ending that I hoped the viewer would share Dr. Henning's confusion, and complain as does he: 'But it's only a game!' And it is a game, this playing with nationalism. But it is a deadly game—it kills." In this script, Noble has combined fantastical elements of the "theatre of the absurd" with realistic aspects of the traditional theatre to produce a play with a powerful impact.
