The cast, crew, directors, and supporters of Legacy’s UIL One Act Play joined their hands tightly in anticipation of the results. They performed a shortened version of The Diary of Anne Frank earlier that day and eagerly waited to hear if they would be moving on to the next round. It was the Bi-District competition and three out of six schools would be advancing to Area. Legacy’s name was called and the clenched hands broke free as cheers rang out. This was the farthest Legacy had gotten in the UIL One Act Play competition in three years.
“I’m really proud of them for making it this far,” Theater Director Jeremy Ferman said. “They really have found who these characters are and who these real people were and are able to put them on stage; It’s really beautiful.”
A unique form of theater, UIL One Act Play allows each school perform a 40 minute play for a judge or panel of judges. The judge gives critiques to the school and chooses whether or not the school should move on to the next round.
“I like that my students get an opportunity to have someone other than me watch their show and give them notes,” Ferman said. “The competition aspect of it is still a little weird to me.”
As with any type of competition, there are some tactics and strategies to take in order to be able to continue to do well.
“The main key when you advance in the competition is keeping the show fresh and making sure its not the same show over and over so it doesn’t get boring,” Ferman said.
Legacy will be competing at Area on Saturday, April 18. For the cast, crew and directors, there’s more to UIL One Act Play than just advancing to Region and ultimately State. Christian Boulter, who plays the dentist that shared a room with Anne Frank, understands the other side to the competition.
“For Area basically our hopes are to just put on the absolute best show that we can possibly do and at the end of the day it’s not whether or not we advance, it’s about whether or not we made a difference,” Boulter said. “If we can go home making all these people that see our show think something new about Anne Frank and about the story, then we’ve accomplished our goal.”
