Potter-Dix One Act Crew To Perform At State

Potter-Dix high school will be participating at state competitions with their one act play “Macbeth: A Tale of Darkness”.

According to Director Beth Bogert, the production is a bit of a departure from traditional MacBeth interpretations.

“I found somebody’s adapted version which left a lot of freedom for directors and after talking with the students, we decided to take it in a very different direction than traditional MacBeth and place it in a post-apocalyptic time period,” Bogert said.

The post-apocalyptic element of the play really shows in the costume designs worn by the performers.

“We did a lot of research looking into movies and got a lot of inspiration from Mad Max films. For the soldiers we used football pads. Lots of industrial materials were used for the costumes to fit the theme. We had one big day where we set everything out with glue guns and pieced everything together. The kids had the freedom to design their own costumes and pads,” Bogert said.

The students at State competitions are judged on a few aspects of their performances.

“The main thing is acting. Is there a rhythm to the play? How are the actors delivering their lines? How are they interacting with each other? Blocking is also important to judges. You have to get the kids to be in a place where they can be seen at all times. Sometimes we have 22 kids on the stage so it’s very important to make sure they’re all in place that’s visible,” Bogert said.

Performers in the play such as Bryant Knigge really look forward to the experience.

“State is a great experience. We went last year. Going in front of all those different people—it’s huge. You look out into the audience, and it’s crazy. This year we have a really good chance at winning and coming pretty high. We have a lot of fun at practice though it’s a really serious play. We all call ourselves ‘gamers.’ We all practice and then we go into competitions and do really well,” Knigge said.

Though nerves would be an issue for most people standing in front of a crowd of people, Bogert believes that the performers of Potter-Dix really just snap into character at the start of the play.

“I think they’re pretty excited. I think they get nervous at first, but once they hear the first music their mindsets really change and they just become those characters,” Bogert said.

Potter-Dix will compete against Bertrand, Callaway, Nebraska Lutheran, Osceola, and Wausa at state competition at the Merryman Performing Arts Center in Kearney on December 6, with their performance starting around 12:30 p.m. Win or lose, Bogert says that it’s really just an interesting experience to see what all the different schools bring to the table.

“There’s lots of good competition. Once you get to State it’s just amazing to see what these schools can do.”