Drama department competes in VHSL One-Acts

Lauren Kassilke, Staff Reporter

She was walking through the halls of an unfamiliar place, only to find herself on stage. Staring back at her through the blinding lights were a group of judges. Their beady eyes watched her as she began her performance.

“It was more nerve wracking because with a main stage here [at Madison], regardless of what the audience thinks of it on one night, you are still going forward with it and you are still having fun whereas this was like ‘oh if you do not make it then you don’t move forward and it is over’.  You also got to get comments from the judges, which was frightening but helpful,”  Drama Student Maille-Rose Smith (’17) said.

On Jan. 21, Rose and six other Madison students competed at Fairfax High School in a statewide one-act competition against multiple Virginia high schools. Every year the Drama Department takes part in the competition, however, this year their performance of “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden”, by Thornton Wilder, Earned them a fourth place finish overall.

“I really like the department and I am glad I got to represent it in a competition against other schools. Normally we only have Cappies to look forward to but this is a once a year thing where you get to bring your A-game so I was very glad to be a part of that,” Drama Student Anthony Sabia (’17) said.

Madison Drama teacher Marshall Henderson hand-picks a group of students to take part in the competition. This was Sabia’s second year being picked.

“We performed it almost perfectly. It went amazingly. The lines were on point. The crying from me was on point. Everything was great,” Sabia said.

An enjoyable aspect of the competition is the student’s opportunity to socialize with other schools’ drama departments and see what they have been working on.

“It was really fun to go backstage and meet people from other drama departments,” third year drama student Maximilian Jackson (’18) said. “My favorite part was watching the other shows because you could see some really cool things. Some shows had really cool concepts or really interesting ideas while others were really funny or interesting.”

Pleased with their fourth place finish, the six-man cast, consisting of Rose, Sabia, Jackson, Heather Colbert (’19), Ryaan Farhadi (’19), and Justice Allen (’17) will be performing their one-act again at Madison for the public to see on February 9th.