The One Acts. Every single Jesuit student has heard about them. They seem to be staples of Jesuit life just like sports or academics. Everyone knows about them, but what are the One Acts?
The One Acts are a series of productions put on by the Jesuit theatre program. They can be plays, serious, comedic, or some mix of the two, a musical, etc. The theatre, as usual, brings in students from Jesuit and other schools to help put together a great production. However, what makes the One Acts special is that all are directed by Jesuit and Ursuline seniors, giving them a chance to show off their directing chops. But something was different this year in the One Acts.
Audience Voting:
This new system allowed audiences to vote on a total of eight productions shown over a period of three days and vote for their favorites. The top four acts were shown on Saturday, and the audience then voted on their favorite of those top 4. “The competition forced the directors to step up their game in a way,” says Junior Marshall Baird, who acted in one of the plays. Senior John Jackson, who directed the one act that received first place, has of a similar opinion: “It brought the quality up… this years one acts were better than some of the past years.”
I attended the one acts twice, once on Thursday, and once again on Saturday, to see the audience favorites. And I have to say, they were great. I didn’t get to see all of the plays, but the ones I did see I loved. From comedies like “An Evening in Culture”, directed by Preston Duff and Grace Cunningham to serious acts like “A Few Good Men”, directed by Michael Caballero and Rose Mannas and even musicals in “Auditions”, directed by Denis Alexander and Elizabeth Derdeyn, all the plays had something unique and special about them.
What I especially liked about these was that I didn’t have to pick the best since the audience picked for me and let me avoid heat from the other directors, but in all seriousness, every play I saw was great, and props to all the directors and cast for putting their time and energy into making this a reality.
I deem the new voting system a success, and I hope I see it continue into next year and beyond, encouraging top-notch acts like it did this year.
