Back in November, I wrote a post about the End Of An Era. I humbly signed off from a most exciting (albeit sometimes tiring and work-filled) period of my life as the One-Act director.

In my various bits of resignation communication with the administration, I warned of the difficulty in finding someone to take the position and that I feared the district could possibly use that to cut the entire program. I had hope, really I did.

I should be clear — the district has not cut the program at this time, nor do I speculate that it will. However, I found out this afternoon that there will be no 2008 One-Act, which is truly a pie in the face in a strong and proud group of students. The reasoning I’ve heard at this point is essentially a combination of unfortunate things — lack of student involvement (a really sad situation) and a new director. I’m sure there are other smaller circumstantial things as well.

I give the person who was doing this year’s One-Act an incredible amount of credit. She was not familiar with the One-Act format nor its intricacies. But she took it on and tried. And that’s what really matters. The One-Act is a unique beast, and as simple as it sounds, in many ways I always found it more challenging and complicated than the longer shows. After all, it was for competition purposes.

So I feel for the director, but I really feel for the students. There’s a core group that will be watching instead of performing for their senior year. Their dedication and love for theatre is inspirational, and I am sad that one of the few theatrical outlets for them will be unavailable this year.

Do I think this could have been avoided if I were still doing One-Act? Absolutely. That doesn’t mean it would be easy; the student involvement aspect is an incredibly complex and integral part of any school-sponsored production. Without students, there can be no show. I hold out hope that they will move on, shrug off this year, and come back more knowledgeable and dedicated next year (for those who will be able to do it next year). That applies to both the students and to the director.

I’m still planning on going to watch the competition on Saturday, and I’m planning (if all works out well) to meet up with a few of the students that were once under my tutelage and offer comfort and support for what is an incredibly disappointing and frustrating turn of events. That and catch up. 🙂

If only life were easy… 🙂

How fitting a quote for discussing theatre:

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”
– George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

–MZ