One-act cast to offer public performance of ‘These Shining Lives’ Tuesday

The+one-act+cast+will+perform+These+Shining+Lives+in+the+auditorium+Tuesday%2C+April+10.

Kylee Khan

The one-act cast will perform “These Shining Lives” in the auditorium Tuesday, April 10.

Following their competition season, the UIL One-Act Play cast and crew will perform their show, “These Shining Lives,” Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium.

The performance will be free to the public and is the last time the cast and crew will perform “These Shining Lives.” Theater teacher Kylie Howell said she is excited to show what the group has been working on for several months.

“It’s nice to get to end on our terms and have a send-off from our friends, family and the community,” Howell said. “We’ve had great support, and we’re excited to perform a good show and share the hard work put in. They’ve put in months and months and hours and hours of work, so to get to share that with people we care about is very important.”

The cast and crew advanced past the zone, district and bi-district contests. After the area contest, the team placed as alternates to region. Sophomore Cambry King, the lighting technician for the show, said the area contest was easily the best performance they had of “These Shining Lives.”

I want to send off this show with the swan song it deserves.

— Jaren Tankersley

“Everyone was confident about it,” King said. “Even after we found out we got alternate, we were still OK with that being our last performance and final stand.”

This was King’s second year to participate in UIL one-act.

“I truly believe we had a lot of really great actors,” King said. “I really enjoyed what we were trying to do and the atmosphere it created by how we took a blank stage and made people look at it in a completely different way.”

Senior Jaren Tankersley, the male lead of the show, has performed in a one-act show for three years.

“We had an incredibly successful run,” Tankersley said. “Every cast I’ve been on, the furthest we made it was bi-district, and we placed alternate at area, which is saying something. For us to walk away with the number of medals we walked away with, with the number of plaques we walked away with, and to know that we had a phenomenal show, an excellent cast and an excellent story that we told well, that’s what the true mark of what a good one-act is.”

Tankersley earned a best actor award in zone, district, and bi-district.

“Getting that kind of recognition for a role that plays against my type really does mean a great deal to me,” Tankersley said. “This year we did better than we’ve ever done while I’ve been on cast. Those three awards don’t mean I was the best actor. They mean I was a big part of why we moved on. They mean I helped. To know that really makes me exceptionally happy, because there is an intense satisfaction with knowing this was the best year so far as competition is concerned since I’ve done one-act.”

Tankersley said the performance on Tuesday should be the best yet.

“I want to send off this show with the swan song it deserves,” Tankersley said. “I’ve loved this experience from beginning to end. Some of my closest friends are in this cast. I want to go out there and show this school why we put so much time and effort into this, why this show matters and why they should appreciate it. There’s a line in the show ‘We were there, and we were shining.’ We got to area, and ‘We were there, and we were shining,’ and I want to let the whole school see that.”