In high school, my favorite part of the year was always One Act Play season. There's this wonderful magic around acting and the whole process that goes into making a production. I miss acting all the time and wanted to make a list of all the crazy, fun things that happen when you compete in UIL One Act Play. Here it goes!

Researching Plays

If your high school was small like mine or you had a close relationship with the director, you got to research potential plays to do for OAP. And you better believe you had a favorite that you were going to defend.

Picking the Perfect Monologue

Auditions were a big deal, so of course you had to pick a monologue that showcased your range.

Rehearsing Lines

Because you only had two weeks to a month to rehearse all of your lines, you were constantly practicing in the car, in class or at lunch.

Character Development

Maybe you took it a little far sometimes, but your director told you to make your character real, and developing a character's favorite song and complicated, overly dramatic backstory was important!

Dying was the best.

If there was a dying scene (or even better, a murder scene) you knew your play was going to win at competition. Especially if you were the one who got to die.

Blocking was crucial.

DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK TO THE AUDIENCE, EVER!

Backstage was made for inside jokes and crew and cast bonding.

As long as you don't miss your cue, who cares if you're goofing off backstage!

Projection and Purpose

Even if you are a sick or old or shy character, the judges will dock you for not being loud.

Picking the Perfect Costume

This was so crucial. You would spend days, even weeks, looking for the perfect costume.

Designing the Set

Searching for props, figuring out clever ways to use unit sets and finding furniture for the set was so much fun!

Striking

This part of set design, however, was not fun. You'll never forget the stress of rearranging sets and getting it all down before competition.

Production Shirts

You still have all of them in your wardrobe, admit it.

Judging the Other Plays

You had a love/hate relationship with the competitors' plays, but at the end of the day, you were all nice to each other and enjoyed seeing each other every year.

Pre-Show

You'll never forget how much fun you had with the cast and crew waiting in your classroom playing games, taking costume selfies, fighting off pre-show nerves and pep-talking each other.

Performing

There was no better feeling in the world when the curtains opened and you said your first line. Sure, there were probably backstage hangups and minor mistakes onstage that only you and the cast knew about, but other than that it was perfect. And once it ended, you wished you could do it again and again.