“One Act is competitive theatre. It sounds really funny, but it’s true,” explained Sam Hamann, first year participant of one act play competition. The current director of the Cannon Falls One Act team is Tanya Legvold, who first started directing at Cannon Falls in 2013. There are currently approximately 10 members in the activity, and they are expected to go to practice three days a week from 3-6 p.m. The play lasts for 30 minutes and the cast is responsible for setting up their own props in a short amount of time, before they perform in front of the judges to compete. This year’s play was a murder mystery comedy called And Then There Was One, described as a group of people who get invited to go to a mysterious island. Many start to die spontaneously and the characters have to figure out what is causing the deaths to occur. An abundance of hard work and effort has been put forth to create this play throughout the season.      

One Act was first created in Cannon Falls in the 1960s, and a few teachers from around the school could attest to being directors. Holly Winget, a past director in the years of 2004-2005, created a spoof play on the well known Salem Witch trials called Crucibibble. “I liked it but it’s a really weird sport. It’s weird that it’s a competition. Its really fun to direct the kids. Its weird that you have to compete like a sports team,” said Winget with a laugh. Her team obtained second place in subsections, but unfortunately did not advance to sections. In order for teams to get a chance to go to sections, they have to initially get first at subsections. This year’s subsections were held on January 23rd, at the Triton high school. “The stakes are high, with only one place being able to go to state,” declared Vienna Qualey, another first year member. Sweeping this year’s competition, the current Cannon team took first and they moved on to sections, which were held in Winona. Sadly, they did not finish in the top four, but there is always hope for next year.