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One Act Festival with Student Plays has Challenges

All parties involved agree producing plays written by students has been challeging.

Director Rudd Rayfield decided to change things up a little this year with One Act play festival and produce the nest student-written plays.

The One Act Festival will be presented on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m.

While this is not the first time one act plays have been done at the school it is the first time the plays have been written by students.

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Some entries were from a creative writing class and others from student writers in the school. The three winners, Adrian Ropal, Summer Freed and Caitlyn Jones, are all now official playwrights.

Rayfield said about 20 plays were entered in the contest. The creative writing teacher narrowed them down to nine and Rayfield selected the final three.

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"They were all great but I was looking for which scripts could be made into a play and work in theater," he said. "These were the ones."

Ropal wrote "A Painting for Jake," a drama about an artist coming to terms with her life after a tragedy. Jones is the author of the romantic comedy where prince of a small country just wants to be a regular teenager and falls in love with a student. is based on a YouTube video about a baker who wants to make healthier treats adapted by Summer Freed.

The evening ends with a non-student written play "The Marriage Proposal" by Anton Chekov, a slapstick farce about a nervous man who tries to propose to his neighbor's daughter but get into arguments over the most trivial things.

Senior Loren Bushyhead is directing one of the student plays. She is a veteran when it comes to live theater- she’s been acting since she was 6 years old and has been in many productions at children’s theaters as well as at Simley.

As a director she said it’s been challenging because the student plays aren’t polished.

"Sometimes it’s hard because they (the plays) aren’t as clear or refined in their direction as other ones," she said.

However, stepping into the director’s role and watching other members of the theatre guild do something different than what they normally do has been exciting.

"The one acts are different from musicals or other play because it’s four separate casts and we’re all over the place and have little interaction with each other," Bushyhead said. "But one acts are a good way for people who haven’t acted before get up on stage and try – it’s on a smaller scale and a good way for them to learn."

The students aren’t the only ones changing roles this time around. Rayfield has changed his role, too.

"I’ve given a lot more responsibility to the kids this time," he said. "I’d really sitting back and supervising while they’re making the decisions."

While it’s not something that will likely be done on an annual basis, Rayfield said he hopes to produce student-written plays again.

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