Opening night of IHS’ One Act Festival was deemed entertaining and memorable, for all the right reasons. With three shows, all written and directed by students, the energy in the black box theater was palpable. In a small setting, it felt as if the audience were members of the show, getting an up close and personal look at the performances of our fellow students. The night started with Tucker Purvis’ “Sylvester Steele: Feline Force of Justice,” followed by Julia Nelon’s “Zinnia,” and completed with Reidar Geraci’s “Holding On.”
“Holding On” proved to be unique by its length (about half an hour longer than the others), and musical numbers (it was the only show that was a musical, with music written by writer-director Geraci, partnered with Ryan Afruma, who did choreography). With “Sylvester” being an all-out comedy, paired with some heartwarming moments at the climax, and “Zinnia” focusing solely on activating the tears, “Holding On” continued with both, giving audiences equal opportunities to laugh, feel for the characters, get excited, and mentally dance along.
Geraci, a senior, played Shrek in the IHS spring production of “Shrek the Musical,” having been in numerous productions throughout high school and a member of IHS’ Thespian Society, quotes on his theater experience, “I’ve been in theatre my whole life. I have grown a lot in the years I’ve spent in village theatre, high school, and in other productions around the Seattle area. I’m really grateful I had the opportunity to do this and show the skills I’ve learned.”
Geraci wrote and directed “Holding On,” and, to many in the audience’s excitement, gave the viewers a bit of a cameo. (Credit to Alice Patillo for lending her voice in a clever cameo as well.) The writers of the one acts began writing months before their stories took the stage. On his reasons for writing, Geraci states, “I wrote this show because I wanted to write original music that I could have people sing and perform. I wrote most of the music first and then a plot and lyrics came along over a few months of making it. Casting was hard because we had to share actors across the three shows and we had to consider all three one acts, balancing who should go where so that all of them turned out good.”
After months of working, the festival began last Friday, March 10. With three shows in one night, audiences got to see “Sylvester” and “Zinnia” before Mackenzie Wilmott-Wade, technical director, came out and introduced the last show. Enter Marie, a young singer-songwriter with a dream, played by senior Julianna Cullen. Enter Anthony, an assistant producer who proves smitten with Marie, played by senior Dominic Mendoza. The lights dim and the audience awaits as the music starts playing and the characters enter the stage.
Cullen, on being the lead, says, “It’s been really different, because I’ve only been in a couple productions now as ensemble, so it’s been super fun, but a lot of work, because we’ve only had a month to put on an hour long musical. It’s a lot, but it’s been really fun, and everyone on the cast is amazing.”
Similarly, Mendoza’s first time leading was in “Holding On,” saying, “Being in the ensemble is a lot different than being the lead because you’re in a lot more scenes, there’s a lot more lines to memorize, and the music is almost every scene. The workload is definitely a lot more, but it’s been fun.”
Mendoza, a member of choir, is no stranger to singing, though theater is somewhat new for him. He quotes, “The first musical theater thing I did was in seventh grade and that was the only time I did it before this year. I decided to get back into this year because a lot of my friends were doing it already, and I’m in choir, and I already liked singing, so I decided to give the musicals a try, and I liked ‘Shrek the Musical’ a lot so I decided to do the one acts this spring.”
Cullen, on the other hand, had a bit more experience with theater, and similarly to her costar, is in choir. She quotes, “I guess I kind of got into theater because my family was very into the performing arts, I grew up singing, my dad especially had done some theater and my older sister was really into it, so I was kind of like ‘yeah sure why not,’ and I just love the community, I just feel like everyone is so welcoming. It’s so fun to put on a production with these people, you all worked so hard together, and I feel like you make a bond to don’t really find other places.”
Opening night led to a packed black box theater, the actors’ family and friends lining the stage, ready to lend applause, laughter, tears, or smiles. Geraci states, “Opening was really fun! It was exciting to have a real audience to react and laugh to everything (especially my parts). Most of all I was excited to see people who have helped me grow in this program see the show. I’m very proud of what I was able to create with the help of my cast and creative team so when they see that it really makes me happy.”
With each moment of the act, whether it be the blocking, the choreography, the songs paired with the actors’ voices, the chemistry between costars, the glorious stage presence of Annie Strander as Aunt Marge, the flow of the dialogue, the reactive audience, or the fact that Geraci and Patillo were hiding in the closest playing guitar and drums for the show, “Holding On” proved to be a perfect finale for opening night, and audience members could not stay in their seats when it was time for applause.
