Theater students traveled out to Hendrickson High School to take place in the district one act play competition. The day lasted from 9 a.m. until nearly 10 p.m. with back-to-back performances.

Director Aaron Johnson chose Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard for the competition piece. The play follows the two minor characters of Hamlet on their journey both on and off the stage. The two contemplate the meaning of existence as they stumble through the events of Hamlet and lose their minds in the process.

The Player, performed by senior Nell Buechler, leads a troop of actors, playing with the idea of what theater is and further emphasizing how meaningless Rosencrantz and Guildenstern truly are.

“It was sort of funny to be the Player because he’s sort of this meta theatrical sort of personification of theater itself;” Buechler said. “So it gave insight into what people see actors as, which isn’t exactly flattering, but it was very interesting.“

The University Scholastic League One Act Play competition has schools follow a rigorous set of rules. Schools must use a standard unit set for each of their respective plays. This rule makes directors find interesting ways to create a setting while using pland grey platforms and other various structures. The play must not exceed 40 minutes, which is hard to do when most plays run around 1.5 hours.

In order to accomplish this, directors make cuts to the scripts; taking out lines that are unnecessary to the main message of the play. This gives actors the most important job in delivering an entire play’s worth of acting in just 40 minutes or less.

“You really have to express the dialog that has been cut through your emotions,” senior Keith Gruber said. “While the play has been cut down, the character arcs still need to be there. Rosencrantz has to go through the same emotional journey that he would in the full length play, so I had to be very careful to make sure Rosencrantz met his full potential.”

Gruber won the All Star Cast award for his stellar performance, earning McNeil a place on the stage.

Perhaps the highlight of the show came from the great ensemble work between Buechler and her troupe of actors. These “players,” performed by James Sullivan, Nathan Painter, Logan Davidson, Andie Mau, Jaycie Litteral, Kenyon Phillips and Duncan McAllister, propelled the show and emphasized the dark themes of death the show brought to the stage.

“It was a very hard process since all of the players had to be completely in sync physically and mentally,” junior James Sullivan said. “We found interesting ways to carry our bodies on stage that were unnatural and really showed a darkness that was supposed to represent the existentialist’s crisis – death.”

Hendrickson, Rouse, and Cedar Ridge advanced to the next level. While McNeil did not go forward in the competition, the group performed an excellent show, leaving everything on the stage.