A melodious wailing pierces through the silence and darkness. It’s followed by gasps. By people flinching away, with nervous looks darting over shoulders and into the shadows. But then, the group breaks out into spontaneous noise with no melody.
There’s banging on the floor, desks, overturned chairs. Stomping. Humming. Whistling. That haunting wail. The noise continues, uninhibited and growing louder and louder.
Then silence and black. When the lights come back on, no longer are you sitting in a dark basement in a dystopian future where music has been outlawed and the young people on stage are facing certain imprisonment and death. Rather, it’s the Performing Arts Center at Chandler High School and the drama department has just finished their preview of “In Darkness, Audio Flowers Bloom.” Later this week, they’ll perform in at OSSAA One-Act Regionals.
The play is a departure for the school, which has done comedies the last few years. With themes of rebellion and resistance, the one-act is dark in both tone and lighting, which the cast said has been both a challenge and exciting.
“I feel very happy, because I like doing comedies, but at the same time, I really, really, really like making the audience feel like, what’s gonna happen? What’s gonna happen next?,” said senior Bethany Descher.
James Kerr, also a senior, said that the one-act helped him tap into a different side of acting.
“So this is kind of something different that’s kind of out of my realm, a little bit different. It helped me experience some different things before I graduate that I’m glad I did,” he said.
Junior Zeke Hicks called it a learning experience.
“It was definitely interesting to do it because I tested out throughout the entirety of the production time what worked and didn’t,” he said.
It’s the first time that the play is being performed in Oklahoma and by a high school, according to Drama Director Inda Jo Conway. She said that it took a few days for the students to be sold on it, but eventually they came around. Now the group is excited.
Stage Manager Senior Ash Herndon said she loved watching the actors come out of their comfort zones.
“I’m back stage but it’s so fun to see all the characters develop and how to go deeper and why am I talking to this person. This is always something I love watching them figure out as their character,” she said.
So far, the story is resonating. They placed first at the Oklahoma Thespian Festival a couple weeks ago, with Descher, Kerr, and Weston Miller making All-Star Cast.
For McLoud High School, they’re continuing the tradition of bringing timely, yet heavy topics to the stage at OSSAA Regionals with their production of “The Door.” The one-act is a two-person play centering on a grandmother coming to terms with the fact that her grandson was gay and that he was murdered because he was gay.
“We usually do really edgy, hot topics, societal issues… and I feel like now people are starting to follow us,” said Director Shonda Vandivort, adding that this is going to be a tough year with many great plays.
Last year, the school was regional champs with their performance of “Live to Tell,” a play on human trafficking. But bringing these topics to the stage is important to Vandivort, even if it means taking a risk.
McLoud performed the play in 2019 for regionals, ranking first and second with two judges, and then dead last by a judge who didn’t like the subject matter. She brought it back because of the importance of the message -- that one of the absolutes we should have as a society is that children and teenagers should be safe and protected and “their life should be sacred and anything else shouldn’t affect that.”
“I think this topic is really important that I get out there. And I think that the message is important enough. Yeah, I’m going to risk re-doing a show, which I’ve never done in 30 something years because I just feel it didn’t get delivered to enough people,” she said.
The cast -- senior Brayden White and junior Averee Haney -- said it was challenging in some ways to connect to their characters, though for different reasons. For Haney, it was because she’s not a grandmother and hasn’t experienced loss like that. For White, it was because although he is also gay, he has a very supportive family.
“His struggle is being gay, so I can relate to that. So I kind of stepped into his shoes a bit easier, but I was never ashamed of it,” he said. “I grew up in a very friendly household. And so, learning to have that internalized shame of it has been kind of hard. To convey that embarrassment when he’s asking his grandmother about it… That’s been the most difficult part.”
White continued that the parts he enjoys most are the more lighthearted moments, like when his character teases his grandmother about her roots. But also the big emotional hits, even though they’re taxing. The two said being vulnerable on stage together has been easier since this isn’t the first time they’ve acted together. They played Damien and Janice in last year’s production of “Mean Girls.” However, it’s different being the only two people on stage. “We are the main focus. We’re the only focus,” Haney said. McLoud High School performs in OSSAA 5A Regionals on Oct. 9 at Bristow High School, while Chandler High School will perform in the OSSAA 4A Regionals on Oct. 11 at Lincoln Christian High School. 1.5” X 4.6”