All actress Hailee Brown could hear was her heartbeat in her ears. The speeding pulse traveled throughout her body. Her chest felt tight and her head felt heavy as she was nervous to go on for opening night. Across the stage, she could see her fellow cast mates, already set up in a restaurant-style set with her character’s blind date and waiter. When she finally heard her cue, she straightened up in her fitted, black formal dress, and strode on stage, her high heels clicking, building confidence in every step.
“I expected a lot of nerves and a bit more things to go wrong than I normally would have, but a lot of things went way better than I expected them to,” said Brown.
Brown was not the only one nervous yet excited to get on stage. The annual One Acts, a collection of acts directed by upperclassmen, put on their opening night production on Thursday, Jan. 29. This collection of shows is very different from the usual high school theater productions.
“For me personally, I got a lot more lines and a bigger part than I usually would,” said Brown. “It was a bigger part for me and it gives you more opportunities. It gives other people more opportunities to get into roles that they wouldn’t usually get.”
In past years, the show has been presented in the band room. However, this year was different and improved because the production was showcased in the Performing Arts Center.
The first show was “Sure Thing,” a comedic show about the chances of two people meeting in a cafe and different ways the encounter can play out. The twist of the story was, every time one of the two people said something that would possibly end the relationship, a lingering barista in the background would ring her bell to start the meeting over again.
Senior Spencer Bingham directed the show in a unique way, unlike it was originally written.
“It was different because of the length of the show, and in my specific type of show, there was so much room for interpretation,” said Bingham. “In the director’s notes, it gave me extremely detailed instructions on what to do with my actors and I just threw that out the window and did what I wanted to do. I could interpret a lot more.”
Following that, the next show, “The Pursuit of Perfection,” contrasts the humor of “Sure Thing” and instead astounds the audience with a utopian drama. It features a society built on the foundation of what is considered perfection, reached by genetic engineering.
Afterwards, a show called, “First Date” showed its audience everything that can go wrong on a first date all put into one act, including a dim-witted waiter and a kleptomaniac. Although the show was light-hearted and easygoing, the actors still had much to stress about before putting it on.
“Before I went on stage, I was really nervous because I have migraine problems, so I was afraid that if I got a migraine, I would blank out and completely forget everything,” said Brown.
Despite each actors’ worries, the show went according to plan.
The last production was a version of “Hansel and Gretel” with a twist in which the children’s mother tries to get rid of them to decrease the amount of mouths to feed.