E J Cooper High School - Talons Yearbook (New Hope, MN)

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Cast portrays storytellers Ottumwa Tales. the contest One-Act play, told of eight bizarre storytellers who appeared on a game show in Ottumwa. Iowa. They all hoped to receive the Golden Lips award by telling the most unique tale. The director. Jeff Phillips, and the cast took a fresh approach to the One-Act contest by creating an original selection based on obscure fairy tales Phillips found in a children's book. It was difficult for me to tell the story as Med, my character, would tell it and not how Brad Hansen would tell it. Brad Hansen With the help of student director. Julie Yunker, the actors spent four weeks developing storylines, writing the plot, and memorizing their parts to prepare for the annual Region 6AA One-Act competition, held on February 1 at Edina High School. In performances limited to 35 minutes each of the seven schools who attended the contest received evaluations from three judges. Although Robbinsdale Armstrong won the Region competition and went on to the State festival, Ottumwa Tales' ” actors Mollie Stickney, who played a cheerleader; and Mark Crenshaw, in the role of a gangster, earned stars for their performances. Melanie Markovich, roller derby queen Blanche Hammerschlog, said, We tried something new. knowing it would be a challenge; even though we didn't win. it was fun performing something we wrote ourselves. Brad Hansen, who played Ned Spurlock, said. It was difficult for me to tell my story as Ned would tell it and not how Brad would tell it. It was really tricky when Ned. while telling his story, became a bear. Phillips said. The kids did pretty well at Regions, especially considering that most of them had very little acting experience. Because all of the schools in the Region attended the contest, which hasn't happened for a few years, the competition was much tougher. ONE-ACT CAST Front Row: Mollie Stickney Back Row: Jill Eifert. Melanie Markovich. Leslie Egli. Jocque Waddington. Mark Crenshaw. Brad Hansen. Not Pictured: Jeff Melby. Dave Streeter 22 — One Act Play

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 Scripts and sandpaper Though the spotlight never shines on the tools, opening night reveals the work of cast and crew The short amount of time that the actors actually spent on stage during a two-hour performance represented over 200 hours of work behind the scenes. The actors first responsibility, learning hundreds of lines, took a great amount of time. The actors developed their own ways of tackling this responsibility. One interesting way included tape recording themselves saying their lines. Then they played them back repeatedly while driving or doing homework. Steve Zahn, who played Harold Hill in The Music Man. said. I take one scene at a time. I'll read a scene through five or six times. Then I'll give the script to my mom while she's making supper or something and see how much I can remember with her reading my cue lines. While many cast members considered learning their blocking, which is stage directions, and choreography, or blocking done to music, tedious, they also recognized the importance of these rehearsals. Dancer Julie Schirmacher said. Some mornings I woke up so sore from rehearsals, but all that soreness paid off. Many people who never appeared in the spotlight prepared the stage for shows. Paul LaBissoniare and his technical crew spent many hours, even on Saturday mornings while others slept, hammering, sawing. and painting to build the sets for Good Grief, a Griffin.” the fall production. Stan Hahn did the same for The Music Man. Some mornings I woke up so sore from rehearsals, but all that soreness paid off. — Julie Schirmacher Becky Kopp. who played the piano for all of the musical productions of the past three years said. I enjoyed working with the people and found it interesting to see how you go from nothing to the final production. Behind the Scenes — 21

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One Act Ploy — 23