Ashleigh Heaton
Entertainment Editor
As the Coppell High School UIL One-Act Play troupe prepares for their regional competition on Tuesday, March 30 at Marcus High School, the department is seeking an audience to generate last-minute feedback on the show. One way they are doing this is offering a free performance on Thursday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the CHS auditorium for parents and family members to see the show in its entirety. However, because of popular demand, the crew is opening up their rehearsal tonight, March 23, at 4:30 p.m. for viewers to sit-in on and enjoy.
“This is our one-and-only chance for the public to see the One-Act. It is especially important this time [to have an audience] because it is a comedy and the kids need to have that audience to feed off of,” director Lisa Tabor said. “We want everyone to have a chance to see what they have been working on for three months and how hard they have worked before they go off to competition.”
The show, Leading Ladies, is the cut-down version of the play by Ken Ludwig and revolves around two washed-up actors who pretend to be a dying heiress’ nieces in order to gain her fortunes. Featured actors are seniors Jake McCready, Jacob Harpel, Zack Zoda, Blake Manfre and Taylor Vowell, junior Mandy Mullarkey and freshman Alex Smith. The rest of the crew includes technicians, who deal with lights and sound, and alternative actors, who act as both understudies and critics of the show.
“Right now, the only people who have seen it are the alternates, and they have seen it a hundred times,” said junior and cast member Mandy Mullarkey. “And Mrs. Tabor has to try really hard to keep laughing at jokes she has heard so many times. We need a fresh audience to see how well we are really doing.”
However, though students are invited to the March 23 rehearsal, it is important to note that it is still just that – a rehearsal. The crew will be starting and stopping whenever they need to in order to tweak and adjust props, costumes and any other aspects, and though the show is supposed to run no more than 40 minutes, it might run a little later. Students are asked to be patient and respectful of this process.
The March 25 performance is promised to run the schedule 40 minute time slot and will not stop despite problems; it will be treated as it would in competition. All-in-all, either performance is something to not be missed – and the free admission is only an extra perk.
“Yesterday, it all clicked: it was funny, and we were finally under time,” Tabor said. “I was really proud of them and I think they are doing a really, really good job.”
See the feature on the play here.
