On Sept. 16-20, the drama department held a string of shows called Original One Acts (OOA’s), which are student written and directed plays. They were performed Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from 7-8 p.m. To provide content for the shows, playwrights from last year’s drama class wrote a show for their final and a select few were chosen to be performed the following year.

“We started it in 1988,” drama teacher Maureen Davis said. “It’s a way to give credit to the drama students. Our activity at the end of the year was to write a play. It’s the higher level of learning so we decided we would stage some of the best ones.”

Rehearsal was held every other day until 4:30 after school, and Saturdays from 10-4 p.m. Throughout the experience, most of the cast was able to develop new bonds with each other. As one of the playwrights and directors in the show, sophomore Marissa Horine was exposed to several new faces.

“I’ve made friends from casting new people that I didn’t know, being like a family as a whole, and talking to all of the other playwrights and their casts in our free time,” Horine said.

Horine found the entire undertaking a bit difficult, although an enjoyable one.

“My favorite part about writing an OOA was generally having fun with it and being as creative as I could,” Horine said. “Directing was a challenge because since most of the other playwrights and I had never directed before, it was a new experience to experiment with.”

Although OOA’s presented a challenge for the playwrights, they would ultimately prepare them as well as the rest of those involved for future participation in even bigger shows.

“This is probably going to end up being one of my top 10 best accomplishments from high school,” Horine said. “I love the drama department because of all the amazing people and how they make my day better. I always make new friends, and everyone’s nice and friendly.”