After knocking on wood, fine-tuning their techniques and three home performances, the One Act team was crowned the Eastern Midlands Conference (EMC) Play Production Champions at Lincoln Northwest High School on Nov. 25 for their show “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.”
The group competed against six other schools: Bennington, Elkhorn North, Lincoln Northwest, Lincoln Standing Bear, Waverly, and conference runner-up, Gretna High.
“Winning EMC was a great accomplishment, and I’m very proud of the students,” director Nicole Schlautmann said. “They’ve worked hard to get the show to this point, and this is an awesome step.”
In most recent years, Gretna Public Schools’s One Act programs only competed at the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) Districts and NSAA State Play Production Championships. However, now that both programs are in the EMC, they were able to compete in the conference play production championships, giving them additional competition experience before postseason competitions.
“It’s really nice, now, to get another performance,” cast member, senior Andrew Jones said, “to get a little more feedback and recognition for our show and the many amazing things within it.”
Even though the team earned top honors, competing in Lincoln Northwest’s theater had its own obstacles to overcome.
“We only had one spotlight which proved difficult,” Student Crew Coordinator, senior Jackson Windeknecht said. “We also ran into mismatched lights.”
Despite the technical difficulties, the team won the caption award, an award given for a specific category, for Best Tech.
“Winning Best Tech is always a blast and a huge honor, but without my crew, it wouldn’t be possible,” Windknecht said. “I am really proud of my crew and how they adapted to the challenges we faced.”
In addition to taking home the caption award, Jones was named one of two overall Best Performers in the competition, alongside Lincoln Northwest’s Beaudon Brown.
“It was very exciting that I impressed the judges to that extent, that they would award me with such an honor,” Jones said. “With so many other schools there, I’m very grateful.”
Following the conference win, the team jumped back into rehearsal for their upcoming district competition.
“It’s usually the week before districts where the pressure really starts to build up, but that is when the best moments happen,” Jones said. “That’s when the greatest moments of the show start really becoming fully developed.”
The cast and crew will have ‘home-field advantage’ this Saturday as the school will host the NSAA Class A-2 Play Production District competition where they will perform for their ticket to State, which will be held on Dec. 13, in Norfolk, Neb. Districts are set to begin at 9 a.m., and the Griffins will take the stage at 3 p.m.
“Districts is our first priority now,” Windknecht said. “We’re taking everything one performance at a time, with hopes of taking this show to the next level.”
If the cast and crew become the District Champions or Runner-ups on Saturday, they will advance and have the opportunity to defend their 2023 State Championship win.
