by Taylor Massey
The Republic Tiger Theatre recently wrapped up its 2022-2023 season with its production of “Night of January 16th,” an interactive courtroom drama. Yet, as preparations for this production took place, several theatre members had been simultaneously preparing for this year’s One Act Play, which won a district championship.
Each year, for the District 8 MSHSAA District Tournament, the Tiger Theatre prepares a Reader’s Theatre and One Act Play. Reader’s Theatre is a group performance where students read scripts aloud without costumes or props. A One Act Play is just as it sounds: a play that contains only one act and, according to MSHSAA regulations, cannot exceed 35 minutes.
This year’s One Act Play was “Rabbit Hole,” and it competed against other plays from various district schools on February 28th at Willard High School. At the competition, only the district champion and runner-up advance to the state tournament. Given the time constraints due to the large number of performances in one day, the process proved challenging.
Junior Ella Peters, who was the scenic designer and also worked on the run crew, said the experience was difficult because of the strict timing. Peters has also participated in nine other shows with the Tiger Theatre and recently played Judge Harriet Heath in “Night of January 16th.”
“If you go over by even a few seconds, you will immediately be dropped down to the next rank,” Peters said. “The really challenging part is the load-in process. We have a total of 30 minutes to get the entire set onto the stage, set up safely, taken down, and out of the space. This time limit can also affect our placement.”
After winning the district, the show competed in Springfield for the state tournament. There were 12 other shows from across the state competing against Republic. The top four performances in Reader’s Theatre and One Act Play advanced to the final round.
After the play, Peters said she is most proud of how she pushed herself out of her comfort zone with this experience.
“I have never done anything like this before, and when I walked into stagecraft design this year and Krudwig sprung this on me, I panicked a bit,” she said. “I’m proud of the fact that I made a set like this on my first go of it, and I’m proud that my concepts went this far. On the review sheets that we received from the judges, we received nothing but compliments on the set, and almost every judge mentioned the set.”
She also said she learned several lessons from being a part of the production.
“This experience has taught me how to go with the flow when trying something new,” she said. “I’m the type of person that likes sticking to what I know how to do for fear of messing up, but I did mess up, and it ended up just fine. Failure isn’t the end of the world. It’s just figuring out how to fix things for the future.”