Gearing up to get into the Christmas spirit, Thespian Troupe #8628 performed their one act, O Christmas Trees, in the gymnasium of Marco Island Academy. On Friday, November 21st, the show was officially declared sold out as audience members raced to purchase their tickets online for the singular showing of this performance.
Written by MIA’s one and only performing arts teacher and troupe director, Christopher Dayett, this one act follows four Christmas trees with unique personalities. Colorado, Fraser, Doug, and Ginny, played by MIA students Joaquin Perez, Samuel Zocco, Lukas Beal, and Madisyn Steiner, respectively, are seen throughout the show getting ready for the Christmas tree farm to open.
The preview that they gave Marco Island Academy was an almost exact replica of what they were going to do at their competition the next day, Saturday, November 22nd. Meghan Donaldson, an MIA student who attended the show, explained that the show was “…really entertaining and I think it was a really good way to end school before break.”
Unlike the big-scale musicals that MIA puts on, this was an intimate, casual performance that gives viewers a chance to see all the behind-the-scenes work that is usually done backstage, hidden from the eyes of the audience.
Though it brought in an audience, it wasn’t any ordinary show. The rules to this one-act made it nerve-wracking for all those involved. With a 40-minute limit to set up all the components of the set, perform the whole show, tear down the set, then put it all back in the box that it originally came in, the tech and cast members were working hard to stay in the golden spot.
Having this time limit, the actual performance itself was only roughly around 22 minutes. Although they had this restriction, the show still packed a hard punch with laughter and a sense of comedy and coming-together. Because of this 40-minute time crunch, they had to make sure each set piece was put in their right places neatly and with organization in order to make sure the set gets put up as efficiently as possible.
Our MIA Thespians travelled to Fort Lauderdale, leaving the school around 7:00 A.M. the day after giving MIA a chance to view the performance, packing up their whole set in a 6×9 box and u-hauling it to Nova Southeastern University. After a long day, they waited with excitement and a twinge of nervousness to find out how they did.
After their waiting was up, they were ecstatic to see how they did. Our MIA Rays brought home not only a Superior Play award but also a Superior Tech award. Sammy Zocco was awarded with the All Star Cast award and Luke Tirrell was awarded with the All Star Crew award. Mr. Dayett describes his feelings towards this successful day as being “…very proud of our Thespians and their performance at One Acts.”
