With this school year being unpredictable, some extracurricular activities may not happen. Fortunately, the school has found a way to still let the one-act play continue this year but it may look different than normal. 

The play is called “Racing Into History” by Christina Hamlett. It is the Revolutionary War story of hero Sybil Ludington, a 16-year-old girl who rode her horse through the night to warn neighbors that the British forces were raiding their area. Janie is the character who stopped at Sybil Ludington’s statue and listened to her story. The actors and actresses are planning to do the play entirely on zoom. For the HVL festival and the Sub-section tournament, they will have a video recording to submit. The judge will be able to watch it and send feedback. The actors and actresses will use the green screen feature of zoom to set the background to match a scene of the play. “It is a good design challenge for each of us.” Tania Legvold, their director said. 

Sydney Specht is playing the part of Sybil. Kressen Hartl is playing the role of Janie. Noah Muhlhausen is Hank, Janie’s dad. Ian Sawdey is Henry who is Sybil’s dad. Fletcher Churchill is playing the role of Janie’s mom. Abigail Ludington and Bowen Maki are both Westlake, young colonial soldiers, and Meagan and Lydia Pederson are playing the British Soldiers.

So far the actors and actresses have only had a few rehearsals virtually and have tried to pull it off. The person who is playing the role of Janie, Kressin Hartl, says, “We have a very talented and passionate group of actors that will settle for nothing less than perfect. I believe the cast will work their butts off to pull together a magical virtual reality.” They have only had a few rehearsals and are looking forward to getting back together when they can. Performing the play virtually has added an extra level of difficulty for the actors and actresses, but they are making the most out of the situation.

The actors and actresses may have their ups and downs during a hard time of distance acting, but they will have each other. Even in a pandemic, nothing will bring down the actors and actresses on making a wonderful play.