One Act competition returns with 'Property Rites'

Sock N’ Buskin will be shaking things up for the first play of the 2016-17 school year. The drama group will eschew a traditional fall play to return to One Act competition with ‘Property Rites.’

‘Property Rites’ will be the group’s first submission to the One Act festival in four years, injecting competition into their already crazy theatre schedule. The show, which tells the story of the neurotic Kyle Macmanus, who attempts to make a quick buck selling a batch of eerily human-like robots, will go head-to-head against other schools. They begin competing against schools in the local district such as Neenah and Campbellsport, and then will hopefully advance to the district competition, and then to the state level.

Student director, Jared Erdman sees significant challenges that a One-Act play presents.

“There’s more at stake. In a normal performance when you perform there are no standards to meet, but in a one-act play, the show is judged so everything needs to be as phenomenal as it can be,” Erdman said.

Senior Ava Fojtik agrees.

“Honestly,  I’m not really sure what to expect, because I’ve never been a part of a one act show,” she said. “I imagine that because of the judges there’s a little more pressure on the performers, but we have a good group and I think we’ll be able to use that nervous energy to our advantage.”

Both the actors and directors are eager to perform and excited about the change of pace.  Junior Kal Horejs, acting as Rudy Pushtin in the play, looks forward to the intrigue of performing in a completely different style.

“This play is an interesting choice. Fall is always the show to experiment with, and I think people are really going to like it,” he said. “While it’s supposed to be a creepy show, it’s also pretty funny because there are lots of different scenes that bring out the humor in dark comedy.”

As well as more time to focus on the details of the show, Fojtik also sees the advantage in the one act system with its exposure to different schools.

“What excites me about one act is being able to see all the other high school drama programs perform,” she said. “We get the chance to see clubs that live hours away from us and learn from them, so we’re able to improve our own shows. I think it’s a great chance to connect with people across the state who share the same passion as us.”

Horejs also looks to this show for a change in attendance due to this new style of theatre.

“It’s a lot shorter than our other plays, so people will hopefully be more encouraged to come to it,” he said.

Horejs believes some things will never change about the drama club.

“It’s a great time doing plays because you meet so many great people and it’s so fun acting in front of people,” he said.

Although putting on a one act production includes a lot of laughs and and team building, it also presents hard choices when it comes to casting and setting the foundation for rehearsals.

“Writing the cast list was very difficult. All of the auditions were stellar, and deciding who to cast and who not to was hard,” Erdman said. “[Director Brian] Phelps and I took a good two hours to finalize the list. We are both very excited for the potential of this show and its actors.”