“These students work very hard on this competition,” said Monty Downs, technical director for the UIL competition. “Most schools start preparing and practicing as soon as they return from winter break, and some even prior to that.”
According to the UIL Web site, the one-act play contest is the largest high school play production contest or play festival in the world. More than 14,000 Texas high school students in more than 1,000 plays participate in more than 300 contests.
The one-act play contests are supported by more than 200 colleges and universities, with faculty members serving as critic judges. The program is considered by historians to be the foundation of educational and community theater in Texas.
“I participated in the UIL competition when I was in high school,” said college senior Danielle Holt. “It was so much fun and really challenged me. It taught me the concept of hard work and how to work with a group, which I have found very valuable in my college career.”
The UIL one-act play contest is a competition where similarly sized Texas schools present an 18- to 40-minute play, usually adjudicated by a single judge. The contest is a full-day event and is open to the public. There are five levels of competition: zone, district, area, region and state. At each level of competition, the judge awards individual acting awards as well as selecting two productions to advance to the next level of competition.
During the area competition that AC hosted, each school had an hour to rehearse on the stage. Later, each production had exactly 7 1/2 minutes to set up their act, 40 minutes to perform and 7 1/2 minutes to “strike,” or clear the stage.
The winners of the Area Class A UIL One-Act Play Contest, who advanced to regional competition, were Sudan High School for Leading Ladies and Farwell High School for The Last Night Ballyhoo.
“These are some great kids,” said Robin Gregory, Sudan’s UIL adviser. “They are very dedicated and have given up a lot of their free time to prepare for this competition. I am so proud of them.”
Sudan and Farwell were to compete against plays from four other schools: Iraan High School’s The History of Tom Jones, Comstock High School’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Whiteface High School’s Gammer Gurton's Needle and Cotton Center’s Alice in Wonderland.
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