In the past, the school year at Elkhorn High School has been filled with theater opportunities. Athletic Director Sara Fjell says that the school would have the play, musical, and one act spread out over the school year, giving students interested in theater something to be involved in year round. However with the auditorium being under construction, all theater activities have been moved to the spring. The One Act, being a competitive event during the fall/winter, had to be canceled.
“I always wanted to direct student directed one acts, but then they just kind of fell out before I was an upperclassmen and so I never really got the chance,” senior Nate Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen has been involved with the theater department all throughout high school, and seniors like him are not able to do what they love in their last year of high school.
The one act is an opportunity for interested students to take acting on to a competitive level. Students put on a play, beginning to end, in a 30 minute period and compete with other schools. Yearbook and English teacher Aaron Boyle was interested in the position as sponsor, but the activity was just too time consuming. Districts are usually in December, but teams will start rehearsals in the fall.
“It’s just a whole other level of commitment,” Boyle said. “I’m interested in One Act, but sometimes I don’t know if I have the time to balance it well enough.”
Boyle is unsure if the school will be able to find a sponsor for next year’s season, but there were many factors that played into this year’s One Act absence.
“I think it was a perfect storm,” Boyle said. “We didn’t have a place to perform, and then our last director had left as well.”