SV One Act ends season in 5th place
The 2021 One Act season came to an end at the State One Act competition on Thursday, December 9th with the Southern Valley One Act team coming in 5th in the state contest. The cast started practices in early October for their play “Marmalade Gumdrop.” The play is a fantasy story about a young boy whose mom has told him to part with some of his old toys. As the furniture in his room comes to life, Wally learns that there is a lot of fun left in old toys. With a small cast of just 10 characters, they thought it would be easy to get together for practice; however, all of the cast members were busy going in many different directions. They had cross country, cheerleading, football, softball, quiz bowl, and mock trial all to contend with for practice times. In fact, the group only had two full-cast practices before the Fine Arts Festival. The group was thankful for the opportunity to perform for the elementary school and high school to give them a few more practices and trials to run their play before RPAC.
In the RPAC competition on November 20th, the group had the wind taken out of their sails. They performed first for the day and came in 5th place out of 6 teams. Outstanding performers included: Brianna Russel, Kyleah Branham, Elizabeth Meyers, Brianna Jorgenson, Kolby Hunt, Kamden Bose, and Laurel Stalder. “We were frustrated. We didn’t get a lot of feedback from the judges that was negative or that we could make changes to, so we had to figure out on our own what we could do to enhance the performance” said head coach Ashley Blickenstaff.
The team then headed to Cambridge on November 29th for districts. “We were determined and confident. We didn’t want to go down without a fight” stated junior, Brianna Jorgenson. The team put on a great performance that solidified a first place seat within a very narrow margin. Blue Hill and Cambridge both very nearly knocked SV out of the 1st seat position. Outstanding performers included: Brianna Russel, Ashlyn McAtee, Brianna Jorgenson, Kolby Hunt, Kamden Bose, and Laurel Stalder.
The team then had the opportunity to perform one more time at the Johnny Carson Center in Norfolk, NE. Junior Kolby Hunt commented, “We were pumped because we just won districts, but then there was a lot of pressure because it was crazy going to state.” The cast and crew were nervous to perform in front of the 200 + spectators, but had one of their best performances. The team finished 5th out of 6 teams at the One Act Competition making them 5th out of the 47 teams that participated at the District level. Recognized outstanding performers included Brianna Russel, Brianna Jorgenson, Kolby Hunt, Kamden Bose, and Laurel Stalder.
The cast and crew will miss seniors Brianna Russel, Elizabeth Meyers, Kyleah Branham, Ashleyn McAtee, Rebekah Taylor, Alivia Taylor, Trevor Brown, and Dominic Comstock. However, they are looking forward to a great season next year.
Please be on the lookout this spring for opportunities to have your Jr. High and Elementary students participate in a weekend drama workshop.
