On Saturday, April 22, the LEE Allied Campus Theater participated in the UIL One Act Competition at Reagan High School. This competition was a chance for schools across the district to perform their own shows, get feedback from judges, watch other schools perform, and possibly advance to the next level .
The show that ACT performed this year was called Iphigenia, and it was both written and directed by the theater directors, Ms. Kacey Korth-Piles and Ms. Allie Danso, which is not required for the competition but added creativity to their show. It was based off of the Greek myth Iphigenia, where a young girl gives herself up to be sacrificed so that the god Artemis will be appeased and stop the destructive weather she had put upon them. The role of Iphigenia was played by senior Frida Castro.
“I think that one of my most fond memories was when we practiced with the blood packet for the first time,”Castro said. “In the show near the end there’s this point where I get sacrificed…my dad, Agamemnon splits my throat. It [The blood packet] is essentially just like a bag of blood, a concoction that’s made of laundry detergent and a couple of other things to make it look blood-like.”
Since this took place at Reagan HS, they had to transport the sets from LEE. Per contest rules, they only had a specific amount of space that they could store the parts of the set that they made and brought with them, although there was also a base set that was set up for all of the schools to use.
After they performed their show, which was about 40 minutes long, they were critiqued by a panel of three judges. After assessing each show, the judges decided whether or not the schools would be moving on to the next round. Unfortunately, ACT did not get to move onto the next round, but they still received valuable feedback from the judges that will help them hone their skills for next year.
“We get an oral critique from one of the judges from one of the judges and then at the end of the contest we get all of the written critique back.” Ms. Korth-Piles said. “I think it helps them as actors and technicians to hear from someone else. They hear from me and Ms.Danso all the time so it’s really helpful to hear from another adult how their work is going.”
ACT also got the honor of hosting the second round at LEE, which means that they still got to see a lot of other shows, and get ideas for their next production.
“We did host the next round of the contest so the kids still got to see the other shows, and it’s great so they can see what they can work for next year,” Ms Korth-Piles said.
All in all, the theater One Act competition allowed students from our school, as well as others, to show their talents, put on a show, and learn something new.
