For seniors in the drama department, the One Acts is a yearly tradition where they get a chance to create and direct their own short-form plays.

One Acts are short plays with no intermission, which are on average 30-45 minutes long. 

This year, there were four plays: “Boy Meets Girl,” directed by Tanner Roath, “Dinner with the Macguffins,” directed by Corinne Colvin, “Home Shopping Studios Live!” directed by Bax Summers, and, “Will You Be My Nemesis?” directed by Dasia Dantzler. 

“Boy Meets Girl” is about two kids named Sam and Katie, and follows them as they go through the trials of love at the young age of five.

“Dinner with the Macguffins” is a sitcom like show, following a teenager named James who brings his girlfriend to his house to “study,” however he keeps facing interruptions which then lead to a black hole breaking the fourth wall.

“Home Shopping Studios Live!” is about a home shopping channel, but, unfortunately, their last producer was fired and has plotted his revenge by scheduling the worst products imaginable. 

“Will You Be My Nemesis?” is a play that tells the story of Captain Battle and Doctor Nightmare, who are trying to find their perfect nemesis.

This year’s One Acts happened on April 23, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the South High theater. 

Auditions were in February. Freshman Rory Winship was one of the students who auditioned for a part,

“They had us look at a list of monologues, and I had about a week to memorize it. Then I went in and performed the monologue for the directors in the Theatre after school,” Winship said.

The seniors direct the One Acts by themselves, directing the actors, using the skills they learned from the Directing class. Directing is taught by drama teacher Jennifer Forrest-James. 

“This is my 25th time having a directing class at South. I look forward to it every year watching senior theatre students take the helm as the director for plays they choose and to see them understand what the job really entails,” Forrest-James said. 

The directors gathered their respective casts after school weekly for rehearsals, where the actors learned all the details of each play. To be specific, the actors learned their lines and blocking. 

This usually included running scenes frequently, and giving actors paperwork to complete in order to correctly verb their lines, and perfect characterization. It was a responsibility of the actors to do the paperwork in their own time, and to help make sure they really get into their characters. 

“It’s not always easy though, because we have to work together on everything essentially and make decisions together,” said Roath.

Junior Kali Sullivan said she is excited to create her own One-Act play next year.

“I will probably do One Acts my senior year just because I have done them every other year and loved it!” said Sullivan. Sullivan acted in “Dinner with the Macguffins” this year. 

This year, people associated with One Acts went to the One-Act festival on April 22. This event is a yearly get together of all the district theatre groups, who perform their one acts for the other groups to see. This year it was held at Parkway West High School.  

According to Winship, there are many different reasons for students to do One Acts. One reason would be for experience, or to experience something new. Another would be to get in ITS (International Thespian Society). 

“Since the ITS requirement requires 3 or more credits from two or more categories, I decided to try acting so I can get into ITS. Also, my friends were auditioning, so I was thinking it could be fun to hang out with my friends more and potentially make some new friends!” said Winship.