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Theatre is competing at Emerson High School on Wednesday in the UIL One-Act Play Contest. 

“So there are six schools. We each perform our play for a panel of judges, and then they decide to put three out of six of the schools to the next round,” senior Tarini Pankanti said. 

This year, theatre is putting on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, cut into a forty-minute runtime. 

“Doing Shakespeare can be hard because the way that they spoke and some of the language sounds really foreign to people now, but because we’ve spent so much time with the script, I think we understand what they’re saying even if they said it in a different way,” Pankanti said. “Even though the words or the grammar isn’t the same, our inflection and facial and body expressions are.” 

However, the play comes with a twist. Despite being written in the early 1500s, their rendition of the play is set in the 1980s. 

“Yeah it’s set in the 80s, and I think it’s really interesting because first of all, it modernizes it which I think makes it easier for the audience,” senior Jessica Daly said. “And also, we can take a lot of creative liberties with it that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Like for example, the characters are now part of a band, and it explores the difference between rock, and punk rock, and pop in those days.” 

Competing can be fun but also stressful, according to Daly. 

“Well I love competing, but it can be scary sometimes. Mostly because of the time restraints. When we’re performing and when we’re doing our official rehearsal, we have to be within the time limit or we’ll be disqualified,” she said. “If our show is still going on and 40 minutes have passed, we will automatically be disqualified. So that can be nerve-racking, but everyone is making sure we’re being conscious of that and I’m super excited.”