The Winter One Acts took the audience through three separate plays that were each one act long. The first story, “Fairyfail,” was written and directed by student Elizabeth Bartels [11]. “Fairyfail” tells the traditional stories of Cinderella, Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs, Red Riding Hood and many more in a not-so-traditional way.
The play begins in the ballroom with Cinderella (Kalena Johnson [11]) and Prince Charming (Lane Flaten [12]) dancing the night away until the fateful stroke of midnight when Cinderella flees in order to avoid being seen in the tattered remains of her gown.
That was the extent of the similarity to the Cinderella story.
Cinderella stumbles into story after story trying to outrun the desperate and directionally challenged Prince Charming. She meets up with some familiar faces along the way. The overly dramatic beauty queen, Sleeping Beauty (Brianna Justen [10])as well as Snow White (Madeline Larson [10]), who was actually a ninja. The bad guy? The Big Bad Wolf (Ashrene Mohammed [11]) and his gang of followers have an evil plot to ultimately take over the show. The Wolf kidnapped Cinderella and defeated Prince Charming in an epic battle. Just when all hope seemed lost, the tech crew and ninja Snow White come to save the day. In a turn of events, the damsel in distress kisses her prince to bring him back to life, and—yes—they all lived happily ever after.
The next tale, “In the Machinery of Night,” written and directed by Blaine student Michael Voit [12], introduces Cass (Garrett Gessell [11])—a troubled poetry artist who wants to create a new religion, and his brother Jim (Alex Konz [11])—a young entrepreneur who was just fired from his job. Cass convinces Jim to help found his new religion, and the Dynamic Church is born. The Church ran well for a few months, but Jim was not satisfied. He transforms Cass’s simple church into a cult that killed three people. Cass, after realizing who had committed the murders, goes to his old friend Jim to beg him to stop. Jim reveals his true colors when he attempts to murder his friend, but Cass awakes from the dead and puts an end to Dynamic Church. He calls the police to end the religion he helped to found.
The last act, “Miss Beth,” was directed by Ms. Hess. This story was full of outrageous humor as well as plots and ultimately murder. Beth (Paige Mooney [11]) is a typical high school girl on the cheer team, other than the fact that she has a psychotic best friend, Samantha (Caroline Henning [12]), and a very emotionally needy mother (Jillian Scherb [12]) who is living in the past. Beth, assistant head cheerleader, after being spurred on by Samantha, killed the head cheerleader and took control of the cheer team. Beth ruled ruthlessly, eventually killing one more cheerleader and Coach Tess (Christine Menge [11]). At the national cheer competition, Beth went face-to-face with the captain of the other cheer team (Jacob Spaulding [11]), who ended Beth’s reign of terror by killing her in a spirit fight.
Though these plays all have different plots, twists and morals, one thing rings true throughout; this theater family can spin one pretty impressive tale.