Romeo, Romeo… wherefore art thou, Romeo?
He’s going to OSSAA 4A One-Act State. The Chandler High School theatre troupe had a strong showing at OSSAA 4A One-Act Regionals on Oct. 10 and has advanced to State. They placed second overall in the competition, and senior Ian Radcliffe and junior Weston Miller were named to the All-Star Cast.
The troupe then competed on Oct. 12 at the Oklahoma Thespian One-Act Play Festival, where they were voted Audience Favorite. Five students made the Oklahoma Thespian All-State Cast: Hannah Davis, Cabella Reno, Nathaniel Nunn, Zalen Smith and Radcliffe. Radiffle was also named the festival’s top actor.
“I really think Saturday’s performance was the best one they’ve had so far. They went in, there was no pressure. I told them it was a new festival for us to go to, and we were going for the experience, not knowing what to expect,” Theater Director Inda Jo Conway said. “So whatever we did was, as long as we got good reviews and critiques to help us with State, I was happy. And anything else was just icing on the cake.”
The group performed the comedy “How to Survive in a Shakespeare Play,” a hilarious how-to guide for characters to survive a Shakespearean tragedy. The ensemble performance requires the actors to play several roles throughout, guided by their ever-so-helpful narrators.
They’ve spent long weeks preparing, with Radcliffe saying this is the most prepared they’ve been.
“We’re so far ahead of how we’ve been in years past,” he said before going to regionals. “Or we would be super duper stressed about getting a show together. But now we have a show, so we’re allowed to go in a little deeper and fine-tune things and smoothen things out.”
A challenge for the cast was balancing rehearsals with all their many other activities. Several members are also in the Pride of Chandler marching band, which has had competitions almost every Saturday since the end of September, and/or the academic team. However, they had an interesting fix for getting energy levels up.
“John asked if we wanted to just scream our lines through the whole thing, and we thought we were going to be goofy and do that, but it really; actually, Mrs. Conway told us that it helped us with a lot of different notes,” said senior Nathaniel Nunn.
Senior Zalen Smith said sometimes it was a struggle to stay funny. “It’s hard to say the same thing over and over and consistently keep it funny. And then, we just find new ways,” he said.
The constant switching of characters was yet another obstacle that the troupe had to work through; however, it was a good learning tool. “It’s a great way for our newer people to really just jump in pretty much within the first couple weeks of school and immediately be in roles that are forcing them to learn how to create a character and how to act out vastly different roles all in the same 45-minute One-Act,” Nunn said.
Junior James Kerr - one of those new people - agreed. “In one, I’m Hamlet, so that’s pretty cut and dry, like what you’re supposed to do,” Kerr said. “And then I’m, like, a horse that takes over England. And then I’m this guy who does an infomercial. And so, it’s all these different voices and accents that you have to do.”
ChandlerwillcompeteintheOSSAA4AOne-ActState on Nov. 2. McLoud High School and North Rock Creek High School will compete in the OSSAA 5A One-Act Regionals on Oct. 15.