The Bear Stage Players took home first place at the District One Act Play Contest for the eighth consecutive year Thursday night. They performed “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare and have advanced to the next round of competition.

The following students received individual awards: Lucas Ridout – Best Actor, Reagan Wolfford – Outstanding Tech, All-Star Cast – Ashley Knight and Rhys Howeth, Honorable Mention – Eli Ridout.

Beyond just practicing and performing, there is much more that goes into One Act Play season for actors, technicians, and the director. An actor must learn, research, practice and perform the character as the play depicts. There are many technological factors along with the actors’ performance. Lights, fog, sound, music and many more important responsibilities fall on the hands of the technicians.

“To prepare, I do research on my role and try to find the best ways I relate with them, forgetting myself and becoming the character,” junior Ashlyn Ellis said.

One Act Play has many rules such as: you must set up your set up and strike your set in seven minutes, you must fit your set into a 10×10 box, you can have a limited number of certain set pieces, lights, and music playing on stage. Among the numerous One Act Play rules, you must confine a play with a single act into 40 minutes and execute to meet many technical standards. The theater program, however, takes the challenge head on and works hard to prevail through the difficulties.

“Our rule book is 88 pages long,” theater director Clark Reed said. “It is very limiting but also requires you to get very creative to accomplish a theatrical vision.”

Theater means much more than simply the number of awards given to the program. To the students, it teaches many life lessons and forms a loving family bond between the cast. A sense of pride and accomplishment is earned in the work you put into something you feel passionate about. The students put forth not only eight hours throughout the week in class and practice, but many hours working on their own for the common goal. Passion and zeal for an objective teach selflessness and love for the team they are a part of.

“Theater is not only an extracurricular,” senior Dalton Teeler said. “It is a family. We all grow pretty close throughout the years spent together.”