Theatre students will be competing at the UIL Act-One Play this Thursday at Lebanon Trail.

“UIL One-Act Play is a full state competition,” theatre director Heather Willingham said. “ We will have a 40 minute show that we will compete with and we will get critiques by the judges. At the end of the day we will find you if we’re one of the top three shows who advanced to the next level.”

This year theatre will be performing The Actor’s Nightmare.

“The play follows a character named George in his own nightmare,” sophomore Jordan Battey said via text. “In this nightmare, George is expected to perform in a play he has no recollection of rehearsing. To make matters worse, the play keeps changing on George, and his fellow cast mates are no help at all.”

Students have been preparing for the show since December.

“One challenge was that we had a very tech heavy show,” sophomore  Eva Guerra said via text. “There were a lot of queues and set changes that needed to be done within the time limit. To overcome this challenge we practiced the set changes several times and eventually did them correctly.”

Due to the pandemic many precautions were put into place.

“During the performance we had to wear masks and limit our physical contact with each other,” Battey said. “Also, we had to conduct the actual performance days a lot differently. We would usually spend the entire day at whatever high school we were performing at, and watch the other shows in person. But this year we had to travel to the school right before our performance, and then travel back to Liberty right after and virtually watch the other shows.”

While the competition may look a little different this year, theatre still hopes to have an amazing show.

“I want my students to put on the best piece of theatre they possibly can,” Willingham siad. “I want them to leave it all on the stage.”