Last month, the Nightingale Theater Company hosted its new One-Act Play Festival during Harris Fest at Keepers Day, featuring four student-written plays from English teachers Ryan Dunbar, William Lacker, and Kevin McDonaugh’s Humanities Seminar class.
The idea of the One-Act Play Festival began with sophomore Benjamin Wilkinson, who wanted an opportunity for members of the Nightingale Theater Company to showcase their talents. Benjamin said he “really wanted to have a straight play at THHS instead of a musical.” He hoped that the One Act Play Festival “provided a good introductory performance to those who haven’t done theater before.”
At the beginning of this year, the Starling Press officially published these plays in a book called Townsend Take 10, a collection of ten student one-act plays. The publication of the book created the “perfect opportunity to produce and perform some of those plays,” said English teacher and Nightingale Theater Company advisor William Lacker.Members of the One-Act Play Festival
Mr. Lacker said Nightingale had been looking to create more performance opportunities beyond its annual spring musical, particularly for students “who aren’t necessarily inclined towards singing and dancing.” The festival gave those students another opportunity to “showcase their talents,” he said.
Junior Lukas Cooper worked with Benjamin behind the scenes to direct one of the plays. “Being able to translate the abstract concepts for plays is a challenge…We all helped each other work on directing the shows because directing is as much of a skill as acting,” Lukas said.
Sophomore David Palacio acted as the protagonist in a play titled, “Before Your Eyes.” In the play, the protagonist, Alex, struggled to come to terms with his death, recounting his previous memories and relationships. David described how his group prepared by “coming together to create these dream-like remembered scenes for the audience to get lost in.”
“Harris Fest is just trying to make people do what they want and put themselves out there.” sophomore Siddhini Singh said, whether through comedy, magic, dancing or another personal art form. She said it also differs from the spring musical by giving students a chance to decide what they want to perform.
For Harris Fest, the leadership team worked together to intersperse the one-act plays and regular talent acts. Benjamin did this by “making sure that there was time and space for every talent act and play to be performed.”
Mr. Lacker praised the leadership’s teamwork, saying, “Ben and Sidd are both on the Nightingale board for the upcoming year…and naturally work well together.”
“This is a very baseline entrance into acting, nothing too big or extravagant,” Lukas said. However, the Harris Fest and One-Act Play leaders believe this was an essential next step for the future.
