One Act comes to TCU
Public performance is Friday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m. at TCU Auditorium.
The last time the school district in Montgomery had a One Act play and competition was in 2008 when English Teacher Jen Davidson directed “Small Actors”.
Unfortunately, that extra-curricular activity was cut from the district’s budget when the Montgomery-Lonsdale School Board needed to reduce expenditures.
However, the consolidation of Montgomery-Lonsdale and Le Center School Districts to Tri-City United Schools, brings back the One Act play.
The title of the TCU One Act play is “Helga the Reluctant”. It is being directed by TCU English Teacher Matt Flugum who had directed Le Center High School’s One Act plays since he was hired there in 2005.
“I was very excited to begin directing the One Act in Le Center my first year,” he said. “One thing I’ve always enjoyed particularly about the One Act is the festival where we can show our play and see the efforts from other schools.”
Flugum explains that One Act’s story revolves around Helga (Olivia Tangren), a story teller, who has to journey to find and remember the story, which will save her village from the entities called the Craven, figures intent on the destruction of the village.
“Along the way we meet her neighbor Berdine, an odd floating woman (Katrina Reeder) and a General (Taylor Block) whose call for aid resulted in several young girls disappearing,” he said. “Helga must remember the outcome of the story to save her village.”
About the One Act
According to the Minnesota State High School League, the State One Act Play Festival does not involve direct competition. Judges rate the plays according to specific criteria, including pace, blocking, costuming, and projection of the play’s meaning. Each production is limited to 10 minutes of stage preparation and 35 minutes of actual performance.
The judges consult after each production and then openly critique each in front of the cast, crew, and audience. “Starred performance” ratings are determined by private balloting of the judges. One school from each of eight sections in each class gets to perform at the state level. Two hundred and eighty-one teams participated in One Act Play in 2011-12, 194 in Class A and 87 in Class AA. The starred performances for 2011-2012 went to Class A Belle Plaine and *Sandstone/Askov, and Class AA Saint Charles, and Eagan, Eastview, Minnetonka, and Moorhead.
SubSections will be held in Waseca on Saturday, Jan. 26. The State Tournament will be held February 7 to 8, 2013, at The O’Shaughnessy Auditorium on the St. Catherine University campus.
