Musical arts and theatre productions are getting bigger each year, especially in schools. Although the fall and spring plays are the most exciting events in the theatre calendar, during the week of February 8, 2026, our school put on a series of One Act plays that have a lot to offer. These plays were written by the Theatre IV students and performed by the younger theatre students. They were performed at different times over three days and there were a total of 15 plays.
Each of the One Act plays was unique, ranging across different genres. You can see a lot of the director’s creative style and personal experience within the plays.
The play The American Crown: Blood, Birthright & Betrayal by senior Madeline Ladewig was inspired by her love for history and beautiful costumes. Her play was from a unique perspective tracing back to if George Washington became the first monarch of the United States.
This play fell into the fantasy genre, along with a few other plays such as, Taurus Rising” by senior Sydney Jordan, The Celestial Silence by senior Josh Kamp, and Unhappily by senior Natalie Gilmore.
Another one of the plays, Thank You & Goodbye by senior Sarah Sedell was based on a true story and followed two families both struggling through life and making different mistakes along the way. This play had similar props compared to the others, and it mainly focused on the individual characters and their journeys. To do this, the director gave each character a different color light to represent the different mistakes they made.
All of these plays took place in the black box, which gave them a more intimate feel and allowed the audience to notice all the little details within the plays. This also allowed the audience to get a closer look at the costume choices, all the props, and clearly notice lighting choices. Especially as previously mentioned in the play, Thank You & Goodbye, many audience members were able to observe the different colored lights due to the more intimate feel of the black box.
The audience members were very engaged throughout these plays as they were all so different and captivating. Each one was only about thirty minutes, yet they all had so many details that gave them a longer feel.
The One Act plays allow the Theatre IV students to showcase their creativity they have developed the past four years. It is a unique opportunity where they can write and direct shorter plays to a captivating audience.
