Annually, each competitive club participates in a UIL competition. Theatre competes in a competition called “The One Act Play.” In this competition they cut scenes from a normal four act play to shorten it to 40 minutes.

“One Act Play consumes a lot of time,” junior Amy Kress said. “In the end, it seems to be worth it.”

The competition is separated into five different sections: zone, district, area regional and state. From each zone four schools are chosen to move on to the next competition until there is one school left.

“The bottom line is, at some point everyone loses,” Theatre Director Michael Abrams said. “Thousands of schools compete, and only one wins the competition.”

“The One Act Play” is regulated with a grocery list of strict guidelines, the penalty of which is immediate disqualification. The play has to be 40 minutes or less, there can only be 15 actors on stage at a time and only four theatre techs are allowed to be present.

“We refer to it as UI-Hell,” junior Amy Kress said. “The rules for this competition are crazy.”

The sets used in the play have to be created using large rectangular platforms, provided at competition; however, participants are free to decorate the platforms as they wish. This rule is in place to try to make the competition fair for every school despite financial status.

“The competition is not supposed to be about money,” Abrams said. “But, of course, the schools with more money are going to have their students in private acting lessons and have more money to spend on decorating their sets.”

Theatre students take this competition extremely seriously and are on a strict schedule. They have practice every day during class periods A3 and B4, after school and Saturday rehearsals. For the past few weeks, at the beginning of each rehearsal, the students are required to run for 20 minutes to build up endurance; however, it has recently been stopped to focus more on the play itself.

“By spending so much time together, the students become close,” Theatre Director Nancy Gibson said. “In turn, we are training them to be the future leaders of the department.”

The current play is “Our Country is Good,” but it is subject to change due to the fact that grades can greatly affect the people capable of being in the play. For that reason a few backup plays have been chosen. Also, this play is highly competitive and certain schools will attempt to use knowledge of the play against that school.

“Some schools are out to get you,” Abrams said. “That shouldn’t be what art is about.”

Last year’s play, “Into the Woods,” advanced once to the district zone before they were eliminated. There is a great deal of hype around this year’s competition and there are high hopes to advance.

“Theater can be a lot of fun,” Kress said. “You really have to be committed to be successful.”