The HHS One Act Team finished off their season on Saturday, winning the Virginia Class 5 One Act State Championship. Their play, Shipwrecked: The Amazing Adventures of Louis De Rougemont, received three out of the four judges’ first-place votes. That wasn’t the only thing HHS won though, as they also won three of the four best actor awards, with those going to senior Louis Gibson, sophomore Shea Gibson, and junior Hazel Pinnow.

“It was a really great feeling, I needed the validation of the acting award because I was going through a low point so it felt really good,” Pinnow said.

The show has gone through many changes since all the way back in September when auditions and then rehearsals first started. Three different cast members ended up leaving the show, with two of them focusing on the musical. Numerous changes from the lighting cues to lines in the show were added, as well as many different props that were introduced.

After almost two months of rehearsals, the team went to the Virginia Theater Association, which took place from Wednesday, October 23rd to Sunday, October 27th. The show had numerous errors and mishaps, including one where Louis Gibson fell and bruised and hurt his ankle. The week ended with Shea Gibson winning his first acting award. Louis ended up taking a leave of absence and without the lead role, the team decided to not participate in the district competition which took place a week later. There have clearly been a lot of ups and downs for senior Louis Gibson who has been performing in One Act since 6th grade. 

“So many times I’d ask myself, it hurts so much when we lose and I’m giving up so much, is it really worth it? But in a way, it was a lesson for life because it taught me to keep going after it every day and to live by my own principles, and if I do that I can achieve anything and my dreams can come true, and that is what I did,” Louis Gibson said.

The cast were not the only ones who had to make numerous adjustments. Director Ken Gibson was constantly making notes and trying to make improvements, and sophomore Kevin Melgar was always adapting to this and running the lights.

“At the start, we had a lot of flashing lights and then eventually we got to the point at VTA where we had to make further adjustments in order to correlate with the actors performing but it wasn’t really a big challenge, I think we just made the lighting a little bit simpler,” Melgar said.

After three different actors dropped out of the show, there were questions about whether the show would be able to continue, but another actor joined. Cast member senior Madison Keller asked her sister, junior Claire Keller, about joining the show and she said yes. Madison Keller did this to try and bring new energy back into the show that had felt somewhat lost.

On February 18th, the team traveled all the way up to Potomac Falls and competed in their Regional Championship. They competed against four other schools and won first place. Louis Gibson also won his first acting award after the show. Math teacher and assistant director for the play, Julie Tibbles admits that she doubted the show at times.

“There were many moments where I thought, this is it, we’re done and we’re not doing it anymore, especially when people started pulling out, it’s over, but I will say that our cast was amazing, they just picked up the pieces and kept going,” Tibbles said.

After winning districts, rehearsals went better for the cast. The team had one final public performance at Court Square Theater on March 5th, three days before the state championships. The performance was well received by the audience and it sent the group off to states feeling better.

The field had shrunk to only four schools including HHS at the State Championship. The cast and crew knew they would have to perform their best to have a chance at winning, and they believed they did that.

“I knew it when I got off the stage that day, that I had my best performance, and I went out the way I wanted to go, and to share that with my brother made it even better,” Louis Gibson said.

The One Act group was celebrated one more time on Wednesday, March 12th, at the Winter Sports Awards Ceremony. Senior Brady Caplinger was picked by the directors for the Most Improved Award, and Madison Keller was picked for the Blue Streak Award. For everybody from the cast to the crew to the directors, it was definitely an experience, they were proud of.

“I definitely want to do theater next year, and this has given me a lot of hope looking forward,” freshman Leighan Baez said.