Wrapping up the year with an 8 hour marathon of senior-directed plays, the North Creek Theatre Company held their 9th annual One Act Festival, featuring a record 8 One Act plays from various seniors in Theatre. Overall, the One Acts were extremely well received this year, with particular standouts being the drama “Tracks”, for its acting and themes, and “All Chime In”, for its humor and feel-good atmosphere.
The first group of One Acts consisted of, “All Chime In” directed by Jordyn Corlett, “The Slipper” directed by Ren Juge, “”Um… I Think the Psych Teacher is Dead” directed by Olivia Puoci, and “Too Many Detectives at the Murder Mansion” by Riley Jones.
The first one act, “All Chime In” followed the story of a man attempting to propose to his girlfriend in a restaurant, a seemingly simple situation derailed by repeated interruptions to the proposal, including old flames of the man coming back into his life, a divorced alcoholic ranting to the couple about prenups, and even a bungled robbery that ends with one of the robbers dead, before the couple finally get engaged.
The second one act, “The Slipper” parodied “The Dating Game” from the 1960s with a fairy tale-themed spin, pitting Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty against each other for the love and affection of Humpy Dumpty, hosted by the fairy godmother and Rumpelstiltskin, ultimately ending in chaos and the three princesses venturing off to find true love.
The third one act, “Um… I Think the Psych Teacher is Dead” trapped a psychology class in a room with their dead psychology teacher, forcing them to fight for survival and ponder their morals and priorities in the situation.
The final one act of the first group, “Too Many Detectives at the Murder Mansion” followed various detectives throughout pop culture (Including the Scooby Doo Mystery Crew, Miss Marple, and Batman) as they were interrogated about and tried to solve a murder at the titular murder mansion.
The one acts continued after a 2-hour long break, and the second half opened with “Will You be My Nemesis?” directed by Alyssa Beavo, in which a superhero and a supervillain search for their “nemesis”, an unbeatable archrival, going through many, many “blind dates” before finding one another.
What followed was “Check Please” directed by Jazlyne Surani, about a series of misadventures during blind dates, where the date is either a kleptomaniac, a germophobe, or a mime. Eventually, a seemingly “normal” couple find one another and agree to go out for ice cream.
The third play, “Tracks”, directed by Jase Burks, followed a cast of people from all walks of life: a nun, a nurse, high school students, who had all died and were sitting at a train station awaiting the next step. There, they contemplate on their pasts and mistakes and what led them here in the first place.
To close the night off was “Instructions for Hugs and Other Tutorials”, directed by Ronin Comes, in which Sunny, who has been isolated at home for far too long, decides to finally go out again to see a friend perform in a play. But uh-oh. She’s forgotten the simplest things in life, like how to smile, or how to hug someone. She can choose between the comfort of her couch and beef jerky, or going out again and regaining human contact.
