Mums The Word For Sartell One Act Play

SARTELL (WJON News) -- Sartell-St. Stephen High School students can let the cat out of the bag this week. The One Act Play performers will showcase their play for the Minnesota State High School League's One Act Play Sub-Sections with a free show on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

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The students have been keeping the name of the play a secret before the competition on Thursday. Director Kelli Kilmer says they keep the name of the play a secret, for the most part, because the judges are not supposed to know what school is associated with each play when they perform it.

Kilmer says the judges find out what plays are being done the day of the competition and that is about it:

"They don't know the name of the play, they don't know the director's name that's associated with it, the program just says the name of the play and the cast and crew list in it so. I think the judges judge enough that they probably have an idea but we don't make it obvious."

Senior Ellena Ashby says they do get to tell some people ahead of time what play they are doing:

"I think its more of a situation of I like to tell my friends and family because they need to know what I'm working on sort of which roles I'm playing, which characters I'm developing but it is sort of like an unspoken rule in the one act community that you save the name of your show so that the judges don't know which school is associated with which show that way it can sort of remain impartial."

While students can tell friends and family the name of the show Senior Lindsey Nelson says she tries not to tell too many people:

"I've got lots of friends that compete in their one acts around in the areas that are from different schools so I actually stay away from telling my friends because a lot of them also compete in their one acts against us so for me I don't tell my friends. I do tell my mom and my sister though so we can talk about it together."

Besides keeping the play a secret, a unique thing about Sartell's one act play is all the music was composed by Senior Elliott Hammer. Hammer says when Director Kelli Kilmer asked him to compose the music he jumped at the chance:

"The music in the original play was composed by the person playing the musician so she asked me to do the same and I was super on board with it. It's been a great opportunity.

The play will be judged in five different categories: Technical Elements, Physical Characterization, Vocal Characterization, Educational Value, and Overall Effectiveness of the Ensemble.

Community members can attend the sub-sections being hosted by Sartell on Thursday too. The top 3 finishers will advance to sectionals next week, and the winner of sectionals advances to the state competition on February 8th and 9th.

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