State One-Act Festival -- A Director's Perspective

And now for a little local boosterism: here's the text of my commentary on the State One-Act Play Festival, submitted for publication to the Montrose Herald...

The Montrose High School Theater Company won big at the 51st Annual State One-Act Festival last weekend in Brandon, claiming its fifth State Superior Play trophy and winning its second full-cast Outstanding Ensemble Acting Award. As many of you saw first hand, our actors (senior Demetria Waba; juniors Emily Miller, Katie Lebeda, Chelsey Katzer, and Holly Coldman; sophomores Abbie Schaefer, Dathan Rappana, Katie Kappenman, Betsy Johnston, Jenna Cleveland, and Erin Binder; freshman Mary Schaefer; and special guest star Katarzyna Lachlan) and our technical crew (sophomore stage manager and construction assistant Lauren Ollerich and junior sound technician Andrew Townsend) gave their best performance of the season on the spectacular Brandon stage.

As the director of this year's one-act play, "The Pro-Life Handbook," and as a veteran of nine State One-Act Festivals (three as a performer, one as a technical assistant, five as a director), I get to view the significance of the students' achievements and the State Festival itself from a perspective different from that of actors performing in their first or second show, parents cheering on their kids, or even casual observers who've never seen South Dakota's biggest drama contest and wonder what all the fuss is about.

First, let's look at what the students have achieved. (Understand, of course, that while I have my directorly biases, I will attempt to assess Montrose's show as objectively as possible.) The Montrose cast this year had a tough show. From the beginning of the one-act program, students have taken challenging original scripts to State. Good theater (and, in the case of the State One-Act Festival, winning theater) is not just a matter of remembering one's lines. "The Pro-Life Handbook," like every script Montrose has tackled since the program began in 2001, is an unusual, challenging show, demanding fast scene changes, coordinated choral speaking and movement, and an understanding of complicated social issues. Instead of an easy family drama, where students could easily drag up pretend emotions about stress at school or a disease or death in the family, Montrose's cast had to find the drama and urgency in political, economic, and social issues like campaign spending, health insurance premiums, the industrialization of agriculture, and Scriptural analysis. Even that list sounds like dry reading. The script for "The Pro-Life Handbook" could very easily sound more like an academic lecture or political address. The students were able to infuse that very academic, political text with emotion and genuine caring that turned the discussion of those issues into a genuinely moving, memorable, and important theatrical experience.

Producing such theatrical experiences has made the Montrose thespians one of the most successful high school theater companies in the state. Since the 2002 festival, Montrose's first year of one-act competition, the Irish have never missed a State Festival, and they have won five Superior Play awards. During that time, in all of Class B, only one school, traditional fine arts power James Valley Christian, has surpassed Montrose, winning superiors all six years. The next best Class B schools, Arlington, and Timber Lake, have won just three State Superior Play awards in the last six seasons. During that time, another 15 B schools have managed to win one or two superior play ratings. Montrose and James Valley Christian comprise just one tenth of the 20 B schools that have staged superior-winning plays at State since 2002, but those two schools have won over a quarter of the B State Superior Play trophies given out in that time.

I cite those numbers because our competitive society (this math major turned director included) likes to keep score. In so many endeavors, rightly or wrongly, we measure success by numbers: win-loss records, standardized test scores, percentage increase in Gross Domestic Product. But Montrose's success at the State One-Act Festival goes well beyond numbers. Ask anyone who has seen Montrose's performances at State the last couple years how full the audience was. Schools from all three classes perform at the State Festival, and for years I've seen the house clear out when it comes time for a B school to take the stage. This year, in a house that holds 800 people, I saw a couple B schools perform to audiences of 50 or less, consisting of the three judges, loyal parents, and a handful of curious students from other schools. Last year, Montrose packed the small 450-seat Vermillion theater; we drew at least 600 to this year's State performance.

The big turnout we get from the community is tribute to Montrose's support for the arts. Our parents and other community members have turned in ever greater numbers to fill the audience and even the critique room, creating an impressive spectacle for the judges as well, who often ee a cast and director file in alone for critiques. For such support, the Montrose cast and I are immensely grateful. But we get even more spectators from other schools. By setting high expectations for themselves, the Montrose actors have built a statewide reputation for great performances. While many Class A and AA schools look through the Class B program, say "Who's that?" and leave the theater to take their lunch breaks during the Class B shows, many of them see Montrose on the program and say, "That'll be good! We need to stay for that show!" Our friends at O'Gorman and Yankton, who put on shows that leave us in awe each year, fill the theater to see our shows, expecting entertaining and challenging productions. Rising to those expectations puts additional pressure on us to deliver an outstanding show, but that's a healthy pressure that our students handle with great professionalism. In return for their State performances, our students receive something more valuable than any numbers or trophies: they receive applause, compliments, and genuine goodwill and respect throughout the festival from actors and directors from programs much bigger than we can ever dream of being.

Aside from the awards and acclaim our students can win, the State One-Act Festival is a unique and profoundly entertaining and educational experience for actors, directors, and spectators. Consider the sheer magnitude of the festival: 46 shows in three days. The mere technical skill required to cycle 46 casts and crews through the loading bay, dressing rooms, control booth, and stage is a wonder of planning and efficiency. 46 schools put on a kaleidoscope of shows, from bare-stage monologues to elaborate 30-person plays with elaborate sets, each transforming the same canvas, the same stage, into a different vision, a different fleeting world. Students see all different genres of theater: dramas, comedies, and musicals, from Greek mythology to modern rock opera (and this year, rock opera based on Greek mythology -- picture Greek gods and electric guitar on the same stage). Seeing the wide range of productions and ability on display at the State One-Act Festival helps our students (and their director) learn more about what makes a good competitive show and gives them good ideas for future productions.

Academically, the State One-Act Festival is worth a full-year course in theater and literature. In my literature classes, I teach six major works of literature in one semester. Even if we read a script a week, it would take us an extended school year to read as many scripts as we can see performed at the State One-Act Festival. Instead of just reading the words on the page, students can see dozens of plays performed (not to mention stage one themselves!). They exercise their critical-thinking skills, evaluating every show, asking themselves, "Was that show better than ours? How can we compare these shows? What worked, and what didn't? What are the judges looking for? What could we do better?" Instead of learning theater, acting, and literary analysis in a classroom for a grade, our students go to State to learn about those subjects from our college-level judges, veteran directors, and, best of all, from hundreds of students just like them who all think theater is cool. The State One-Act Festival may mean a couple days away from school, but it meets academic standards that would take weeks to meet in the classroom.

Besides all that, the State One-Act Festival is just plain fun. Our kids get to take their best shot at making an audience cheer. They get to laugh and cry and cheer for the efforts of other actors. They laugh as they see Canton's onstage couch collapse under the weight of two overexuberant actors, then join in the crowd's genuinely admiring applause as the lead actress holds back her laughter, grabs a book, and uses it to prop up the low corner of the couch. They stare in wide-eyed amazement at the sumptuous, dazzling costumes of Yankton's production of "Arabian Nights" and the flowing, magical outfits of the fairies in Brandon Valley's rendition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." And after all the shows, before awards are announced, they put all competition aside and join students from every school at the festival in commandeering the stage for a sprawling dance. (Compare -- how many times have you seen the teams and fans from O'Gorman and Roosevelt get together with the Dell Rapids and Iroquois crowd for a dance after the big games at the Dome?) The State One-Act Festival produces the very spirit of fun and fellowship that all school programs should be about.

The cast and I thank everyone who supported our one-act efforts this year. Through the one-act program, the Montrose School District gives its students a chance to develop valuable skills and enjoy opportunities that would never come about in the regular classroom. As a director, I am honored to have this opportunity to educate in a different way, provide entertainment for the community, and even, as was the case this year, stage a show that could spark conversations about our state and what we can do to make it better. Theater at its best entertains, educates, and inspires its audience, and this year's one-act did all three.