This year's entry in the University Interscholastic League One-Act Play Contest was Enchanted April by Matthew Barber. The play is about four English ladies who take a vacation in Italy and change their lives forever. The play took us on a little bit of a journey, as well. In our first year of competition in District 22 5-A, we managed to advance form Zone as well as District competion. This is better than we had done in the past several years. In Zone competition, the play was awarded:
Best Actor
Best Actress
2 All-Star Cast
Best Technical Crew

In District competition:
2 All-Star Cast
2 Honorable Mention All-Star Cast

In Area competition:
1 All-Star Cast
1 Honorable Mention All-Star Cast
Best Technician

Although the play did not advance from the Area level, it really felt good to get a couple of wins under our belts.

The setting for the "Italian act" is described as an Italian castle with a view of the ocean and wysteria tumbling over itself. The set design evolved from a symmetrical design which reflected the classical Roman architecture to some thing which was more interesting, yet did not loose the feeling of the classic look.

By adjusting the vertical pylons in position and attitude to the audience, we were able to keep the vertical line of the austere classical style, while at the same time, create a more interesting picture. We used as much wysteria as we could without violating the rules of the contest.

The rules allow for 12 feet of free standing railing. We wanted this look found so often in Italian architecture. We created the bannisters from polystyreen foam block utilizing a makeshift lathe. The mess we made in the shop was most impressive!

Act I takes place in London. We played the scenes in front of the curtain and kept the lighting dark and dreary. We wanted huge contrast when the play shifted to Italy. Sound effects included thunder and rain to add to the dreary ambience.

The idea was to give the impression of two houses where similar things were happening at the same time.

We wanted the contrast between London and Italy to be sudden and eye-popping. There was lots of light and lots of color. We put wyteria on everything the rules would allow. This is also where the costumes began to play a larger role. I lost count of how many we used, but most are seen in the preceding photos.