Not all

regional competitions take place on the athletic field or

in the classroom; some take place on the stage. Last

week, all four local high schools entered the regional

one act competition with hopes of making the state

competition in Warner Robbins.

The plays

had various styles and themes, including comedy, drama,

political drama and farce.

Fayette

County High School performed the play "A Night in

the Ukraine" last Thursday. The play is based on a

Marx Brothers film that was never made, as well as a

Tommy Tune Musical called "A day in Hollywood, A

Night in the Ukraine." The play had the look of a

black and white film, with the cast decked out in makeup

and costumes that reflected that.

The set

looked like an art deco funhouse, much like some of the

films of that period. The show was well-received in its

run at the school and was professionally filmed.

The play

was directed by James Wagner, who discovered the show

when he worked on its revival with the St. Louis

Repertory Theater in 1991. He realized that he had the

cast for the show in his classes, a group of students

that had known each other since sixth grade. Each student

had a talent that could be applied to the show and their

comfort with each other led to their impeccable comic

timing.

To prepare

for the show, his cast worked on clowning techniques and

viewed 14 different Marx Brothers films.

The other

school entered in last Thursday's 4-AAAA regional one act

competition was McIntosh High School. They entered their

play "Something's Rotten in the State of

Denmark." The play is a take-off on Shakespeare's

"Hamlet." It begins with a high school drama

club's dress rehearsal for "Hamlet" and the

hope that nothing goes wrong in their first performance.

The play then shows all that could go wrong in the play.

The play

was directed by the school's new drama teacher, Rebecca

Packard. They had good performances at the school,

selling out their Saturday evening show. Packard found

the cast's strengths to be comedic timing and an

excellent grasp of the line delivery. The main difficulty

of the show was completing the sets. Everything was

completed, though, and the show went off beautifully.

McIntosh

wasn't the only school to perform a work that tied into

Shakespeare. Starr's Mill performed the political drama

"Cahoots MacBeth." The show dealt with a group

of actors in war-torn Prague performing

"MacBeth" in a basement. The government does

not trust the actors and has a government inspector

victimizing the actors for breaking the law.

The play

can be quite brutal but it gave the cast a chance to

perform in something that is not typical of high school

drama clubs. "We were inspired to do a play about

the right to exist without repercussions for you beliefs

or ethnicity," said Stuart Fail, director and head

of the Starr's Mill Drama Department. The show was

dedicated to the Kosovar refugees living in the area.

The Sandy

Creek Drama Club also performed a hard-hitting piece,

with the play "Bang, Bang, You're Dead." The

piece was written by William Master Simone last year in

the wake of some school shootings and has been performed

with a perpetrator of one of these crimes and the

consequences, both physical and psychological, that he

will endure. The play was directed by Kathy Anderson and

featured a cast of 14.

The play

was performed twice during the school day in October as

well as twice at night, so that more students could see

the show. Principal Charles Warr attended several

rehearsals to help make the show more accessible to

audiences and, though the piece can be very dark, it is

not without humor.

Cast

members said they found the play to be very important.

They found that many people who viewed the play were a

little put off at first, but that it launched good

discussions and was very powerful. One girl commented

that reading the play for the first time was just as

powerful as seeing it. The play is published on the web

and can be performed for free as long as several

guidelines are met.

A famous

man once said, "It is no matter if you win or lose,

but how you play the play." That quote might not be

exact, but it rings true. McIntosh did not place in the

4-AAAA competition but they received all Excellent scores

from the judges and received many comments about their

strengths as an ensemble.

The winner

of the 4-AAAA competition was Fayette County High School.

Their sets and tremendous performances set them above the

other schools in the region. They will now enter the

state competition in Warner Robbins at Perry High School

Saturday at 4:50 p.m.

In AAA,

Sandy Creek High School took first place. "There are

some very minor things to work on," said Kathy

Anderson, "but we got a lot of very nice

complimentary comments." Sandy Creek will perform at

Houston County High School Saturday at 4:50 p.m. Awards

will be presented at 7 p.m.

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