By: Andrew Paul
The OHS theater department, along with the OHS improv group, presented their second annual Advanced Theater Playwriting Competition Nov. 22. Three plays written by students were acted out in front of an audience and judged by OHS staff members.
“The Purrfect Crime”, written by juniors Melanie Ceh and Morgann Hopson, won the competition, with “An Excellent Team” taking second and “We Regret to Inform You” taking third.
There were nearly 100 people in the audience for a fun-loving atmosphere.
“The Purrfect Crime” starred Nathan Crowell, junior, as Detective Benedict who has to find out who stole the painting of a cat from a museum.
The play starts out with Benedict and his assistant having a celebratory drink after solving a crime, which results in his assistant dying suddenly. Throughout the play, it is a running joke that every one of his assistants all die while working with him, whether it is a random death or being randomly shot out of nowhere.
Through interviews and multiple assistants, it is found out that Benedict’s assistant at the beginning of the play had faked her death and is actually a secret Russian spy who plans on selling the painting back in Russia. Benedict and his current assistant are kidnapped, but manage to escape and have her arrested, retrieving the painting back.
Before “The Purrfect Crime”, “An Excellent Team” started the competition.
“An Excellent Team,” written by Lissie Hoover was a the love story set in America in the 1940s very soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The play features a young woman, Betsy (played by Lissie Hoover, sophomore), who is strongly in favor of the war, she meets a charming British man (played by Nathan Sheppard, sophomore) who is strongly against the US going to war. Initially when she meets him, she hates him, but eventually grows towards him, ending the play with a kiss between the two.
The third-place finish went to a drama, “We Regret to Inform You,” written by Anya Rogers, senior. It features a senior girl named Avery (played by Alexanthe Kane, junior) and a senior guy named Calvin (played by Kyle Turner, junior) who are neighbors. Avery isn’t accepted into her dream college and if she wants to reapply, she has to write an essay on a time she took initiative, that’s due in a month.
Calvin suggests she does a book drive, which Avery ends up deciding to do. Calvin helps her with this throughout the play, and as the play goes on, Avery realizes more and more of what initiative actually is instead of just doing something for her own selfish reasons, like getting into college.
The play ends with her finding out that she made it into her dream college and kissing Calvin, who had liked her throughout the entire play.
While the judges were deciding the winner, improv did a few routines such as half life where they have to act out a 60 second scene and then do it in half the time, then half the time as before, and so on and so on until they have to do it in 7.5 seconds.