One-Act Festival to Be Performed Friday

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Harrison High School’s Theatre Arts, Acting and Advanced Acting and Directing students will present staged readings and fully staged productions of original student plays at the third Annual Spring One-Act Festival. 

The festival will be performed in the Harrison Performing Arts Center at Harrison High School on Friday, June 1, at 7 p.m. Nine original short plays written by Harrison High School Theatre Arts students will be showcased. The line-up of plays includes comedies and dramas ranging in topic from a murder mystery comedy to a drama set in the mind of a boy in a coma.

The first section of the program will include staged readings of original plays by Introduction to Theatre Arts students. The concept of the "staged reading" is popular with many professional theatre companies, but one that is less common at the high school level. The staged reading allows for playwrights to hear their work presented by actors and hear audience feedback in order to revise their work prior to production. Plays selected for staged readings include: You Think You Know Someone, by Troy Tripicchio; Be Careful What You Say, by Daniella Lagani; Things I Should Have Said, by Andi Rella; and The Choice of Life, by Shyla Solangi.

The second portion of the program will include plays fully staged by the acting students. These plays include: Haunting Confessions, by Stepheny Ordonez; No Chance for Romance, by Laura Noejovich; Dance the Night Away, by Nicole Ferrara and Princess Intervention, by Halle Mastroberardino.

Three of these plays were presented as staged readings at last year's one-act festival and will now be fully staged. Princess Intervention was seen at last year's festival, and is back by popular demand.

A new addition to the program is the presentation by the Advanced Acting and Directing Class. This year's class has collaboratively written a play entitled Lock Down. The entire class will be acting in the play. Members of the Advanced Acting class include: Michelle Barnstable, Rafael Dalcolmo, Olimpia Goldberg, Marlina Gomez, Jacqueline Ledesma, Michael Menache, Christopher Morris, Adriana Nocco, Andrew O'Rourke and Carmen Velazquez.

Ms. Nina Mansfield, the theater arts, acting and advanced acting and directing teacher, is a published and produced playwright. Her plays have been produced throughout the United States, and in England, Canada and Ireland. She is published by Smith and Kraus, Original Works Publishing, One Act Play Depot and YouthPLAYS.

Admission is free and open to the public.