Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
In this scene, King Arturas, second from right, played by Tyler Harroun, confronts Lady Vidman, center, portrayed by Danika Daum, as part of the fairy tale portion of the play. Also pictured are: Jaden Mohr as Draex, pictured bottom left; Natasha Selves as Q'El, left, and Kallie Bush, second from left, as Cora/Caroline; and Audrey Day, right, as Queen Yesmine.
Jodell Schulte, left, portrays Agta in this fairy tale seen with Kallie Bush, center, as Cora/Caroline, and Jordyn McDowall, right, as Aquilla.
In this scene, Kallie Bush, left, as Cora/Caroline, is seen in her hospital room with her parents, Jessica Portillo, center, as Maggie, the mother, and Justin Mohr, right, as Reggie, the father.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and it also led to a wider viewing of Kimball High School's One-Act Play this fall.
A larger than normal group of students out for the school's One-Act Play made it necessary to raise more funds this year, said sponsor Jennifer Dillinger. The solution was to hold a dinner theater for the community to raise funds. Dillinger said this was the first time the school had held the event. This brought in even more members of the community than normal to get the first look at the One-Act Play, Sillyheart. The students performed the play in conference competition this week, and will perform it again in district competition next week.
Dillinger said the dinner theater, which was held last Thursday, was quite the success.
"We have had a challenge this year in that we had a lot more students go out for one-act than I really expected, and so everything has been a little bit more expensive," Dillinger said. "Our overnight trip is a little more expensive. So I challenged the kids to go out into the community and raise support to see if we could get businesses and family members, whoever, to donate to the cause, and they've done a wonderful job.
"I'm so thankful that the community has, with their pocketbooks, shown an appreciation for the arts and shown an appreciation for our students. So thank you to the community."
The students performed the play live last Thursday, prior to their first competition.
Dillinger chose the play after reading through it, but almost skipped over it after just looking at the title.
"When I was looking through scripts, I actually read the title and almost didn't read the synopsis, because it sounded a little dumb - it sounded cheesy," she said. "But when I read the play, it really has a beautiful message to it."
Sillyheart, a play by Billy W. Boone, combines the real-life drama of a young girl's battle with cancer interspersed with her favorite fairy tale.
"It's about a young girl struggling with cancer, and her coping mechanism is her favorite fairy tale," Dillinger said. "At the end of the play, the message is really one of hope, and even though life is sometimes unfair, it's really important to have something that you believe in. So it sort of ends on this really hopeful note, which I thought was just a good message for the kids to be involved in throughout the season and to really present to our audience and in competition as well."
Kimball competed in conference competitions both Monday and Tuesday. The district competition is set for next week.
The many challenges of the performance includes a different stage and different dimensions at each location.
"Usually, the host school will send us the dimensions of the stage so we have some idea what size it will be," Dillinger said. But it's a completely different lighting system, a completely different sound system, so our technical crew really has to learn quickly. They have to learn how to run the light board and the sound board very quickly. It's really a fast turnaround, getting ready for each production, which is part of the challenge of the one-act competition."
Dillinger said the students always rise to the challenge of the situation.
"I think it's certainly a challenge, but I've found that the kids who are interested in one-act are willing to put the work in to do a good job," she said. "It's amazing to me how they come together very well at the end. We've never really had any huge snafus in competition, that I remember. They really rise to the occasion really well, which is great."
