Every year around Christmas, my family will watch a play or musical at the Ordway in Minneapolis. We have watched shows ranging from “Annie” to “Beauty and the Beast.” These go on for 2 hours or more, but what is much shorter than a full play or musical is a One Act play.
One Act is a short version of a play with quite literally one act versus a full show with 2 to 3 acts. There are only 20 students allowed to participate maximum. Most often, it’s a competition against other schools. The competition dates are January 25th at Cannon Falls and January 27th at Triton. Actress Willow O’Gorman says, “It’s fun, but also stressful because our first competition is in a week.”
This year, the One Act play is about a girl named Eleanor who forgets to write her paper for her English class, so she makes a chatbot do it. The principal of her school and her English teacher think the paper is so good they decide to send her to a school called “The Learning Center for Special Genius Children.” She meets other kids and later finds out they also got into the school because of a chatbot. The kids find out the school is basically run by the chatbots, and they all decide they want to escape. They create a plan to leave and set it into action, running past the guards and then home. Eleanor learns her lesson on using chatbots for her papers and the story ends. Henry Nygaard says, “ It’s surprisingly fun and chaotic at the same time.”
One Act is an opportunity to get to know new people. Actress Moss Swanson says, “I think it’s a really fun way to do stuff, a very fun thing to do after school. If you don’t like acting we have tech options, and it’s a very in-depth experience that I would definitely add to your to-do list.” Everyone involved is extremely friendly and always welcomes new people. They all recommend it and believe it’s a great way to get involved in school.
