Excited comments arising from the anxious crowd are hushed as a speaker steps forward and says a short introduction for the audience about what they are about to see performed. While this happens, the actors and actresses get ready to begin, saying a few words of encouragement to each other and trying to rid themselves of the butterflies in their stomach. The house lights dim and the curtains open as the actress who goes on first waits for her sound cue. Seconds pass and nothing is heard, so the actress flutters on the stage to her opening spot and begins, knowing the show must go on.
Last Wednesday, April 4, MacArthur performed in the One-Act competition after advancing from Zone in their last performance. The show didn’t begin too smoothly, though, when a couple of errors ran their course, catastrophically affecting the delicate balance and time limit of the play.
“We had a couple technical issues at the very beginning of the show that made us go over 40 minutes,” senior actor, Trevor Stokes, said.
This situation put the company 2 seconds over the official 40 minute time limit for each play, disqualifying them immediately.
“But that got taken care of and excused,” Stokes said.
One of the judges understood that this was an uncontrollable error, so he looked in the rule book and made a call, ultimately putting the cast back in so they could be judged.
“Other than that the entire show went really well,”Stokes said.
Even though the cast had already performed and advanced before, they knew that any performance could be their last and that there were always bugs to work out and scenes to perfect.
“We learned so many new things about ourselves and about the characters,” Stokes said. “I feel like we put that on stage.”
Despite this, Madison and Johnson got to advance, while Reagan and MacArthur didn’t. Both had to say goodbye to the chance of performing and advancing again.
“Every show that we competed against was amazing in its own way,” stage-manager, junior Bianca Torres, said. “All the casts were so talented and the two remaining shows will do a great job of representing our district at Region.”
Although MacArthur and Reagan didn’t get to move on, the best actor and actress awards went to Reagan’s cast members, and most of the actors and actresses in MacArthur got awards, such as All-star cast.
“I really dont feel like we lost, we just didnt fit the judges criteria,” Torres said.
Even though MacArthur didn’t advance, the cast and crew still had a great time and plan to perform the play one last time to MacArthur.
“I feel that as a whole we made an incredible amount of progress,” Torres said. “I know that everyone, including myself, put everything into the show and when we all worked together it was truly beautiful.”
