First place went to the Winner High School contest one act play at the regional in Pierre on Jan. 23. The play, “Whispers,” will advance to the state meet Feb. 3 in Sioux Falls at O’Gorman High School. Pictured in front from left are Tessa Mann, Faith Covey, Addi Heenan, Illyana Crabb and Mallory Thayer. In back from left are Justin Hausmann, Maggie DeMers, Hayden McMurtrey, Leah Wiechelman, director Sarah Taggart, Cassie Shutt, Amanda Blare, technical director Dan Patmore and assistant director Emily Moser.
By Dan Bechtold
Editor
A Winner High School one act play that has a lot of emotion won first place at the regional contest in Pierre on Jan. 23.
“Whispers” is the contest one act play chosen this year by Winner High School.
The play will advance to the state contest Feb. 3 in Sioux Falls at O’Gorman High School. Winner will perform at 2:15 p.m. on Feb. 3.
A sendoff for the state-bound one act play cast and crew will be held at 7:45 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 2 in front of the Armory.
The eight cast members are: Maggie DeMers, Leah Wiechelman, Tessa Mann, Hayden McMurtrey, Justin Hausmann, Faith Covey, Addi Heenan and Amanda Blare. All members of the cast received an outstanding rating.
The crew members for this play are Illyana Crabb, Cassie Shutt and Mallorie Thayer.
The play is directed by Sarah Taggart with Emily Moser as the assistant director and Dan Patmore as the technical director.
Taggart explained that “Whispers” is a play where the central character (Kate) has lost her father in the war. She is in the woods, a place she and her father would visit often. Her friend finds her and tries to support Kate through her grief.
The whispers are characters that are on the fringe and represent kids that Kate met at a grief camp.
Throughout the play, each member of the whispers tell their story and what their feelings are in losing their parents. Kate begins to use all the different pieces of how these kids have processed their grief to somehow get some closure.
This powerful one act is a beautiful and touching ensemble piece that gives every single actor a monologue and a moment in the spotlight.
Taggart explained the judges in Pierre felt the Winner kids were awesome and had nothing bad to say about the play.
The director added the judges were impressed how these students could bring so much emotion and feeling to this play.
Taggart explained she at first had a different play picked out. “I had a whole different play chosen with the large number of seniors who would be in the play,” explained Taggart.
For tryouts, Taggart had each student perform a monologue. “It just blew me away what these students did in the short time they had to prepare,” she said.
“In the play I had chosen everyone gets killed off throughout the play and I could not have one of these outstanding kids get killed and not be on stage anymore. I just could not do that with the amount of talent we had in this play. I did not think it would be fair so I went back and started searching for something different. The play “Whispers” jumped out at me because each character has a monologue and their own moment in the spotlight,” she said.
Taggart noted she was a little nervous about the play being about a war but there is very little mention of the war in the play.
This is the third time in four years Taggart has taken a play to state. Also, for the bulk of the seniors it is their third time competing at state.
Taggart explained the play cast will have practice before heading to Sioux Falls. They practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We want to perform well at state,” said Taggart.
Loading ...