Like the UIL District Meet, the UIL One-Act Play had two important dates to remember. On Thursday, March 27, each school involved showed up at China Spring, put up and spiked (laid tape to signify where stage pieces go) the set, and ran the show. Afterward, the cast and crew put up the set, gathered the materials, and went back to school. The light crew also had a chance to practice working with a different light board and how to make set up the lights for the show.

It was one of the last official practices before the District Meet for every school. The LVHS cast and crew went to China Spring PAC shortly after lunch. Two days later, on Saturday March 29, LVHS and the other five schools performed the plays, back to back.

The order the schools performed in is Gatesville, Robinson, Connally, China Spring, Lorena, and LVHS, at about 5:15 p.m. A short set of skits spoofing each play by China Spring students followed the performances, and the skits led into the awards ceremony, where De Von Brown won an Honorable Mention All-Star Cast award, and Jessica Hall and Elisei Rusu both won All-Star Cast awards.

During the awards, it was announced that our school did not advance; those who did were Connally and Gatesville with Lorena as an alternate. Since then, our group practiced a few times for two shows here at school; then on Tuesday, April 8, we opened to a packed house and had a decent play. On Thursday of that week, we finished up with our last performance to another large crowd and gave one of our best performances.

It’s been a while since then, and Jenny Hoffman, our director, is ready to have the talent show, an improv show, and a play for little kids (“Cinderella Wore Combat Boots”) featuring students from one of her classes as soon as possible.