After six months, the lights dim for the final showing of the HHS Stage Streaks One Act Shipwrecked! An Entertainment. The show stars Louis De Rougemont, a storyteller who recounts his own life after spending 30 years at sea. The cast includes senior Louis Gibson, junior Hazel Pinnow, sophomore Ell Norment, sophomore Shea Gibson, senior Madison Keller, freshman Leighan Baez, and junior Claire Keller. The One Act began in September 2024 and ended in March 2025.
“It started off when we read the script for the first time, and we basically all hated the show.” Norment said, “We all thought it was a really stupid plot that was really centralized on the main character. We felt like that basically for the whole first half of the show. VTA only hit further during that point home.”
The Virginia Theatre Association held its One Act festival back in October 2024 in Richmond, VA. Many schools came together to perform, including HHS. The VTA Shipwrecked performance was nothing short of a disaster according to the cast.
“Our VTA performance was horrible. So many things went wrong,” Norment said, “Ladders got knocked over. One of our actors actually fell off the stage. It was so dangerous.”
Three out of the nine actors quit after the VTA performance. Morale was low according to the cast, and more actors were needed. Another actor joined in January, so the show could continue. States was next in line for the One Act Team.
“The whole time we’re nervous because it’s the best schools in the whole state,” Norment said.
Before the winning show was announced, the actor awards were given out. Out of the four actor awards, the One Act Team won three. They went to Pinnow, Louis Gibson, and Shea Gibson.
“After that, we were like ‘We have to win’ but it’s still so stressful even though I knew we were gonna win. I felt like I was gonna throw up. It was really scary. And then they announced our school,” Norment said. “They didn’t even get to finish saying our name. They said ‘HAR-’ and then we were jumping up, the majority of the cast starts crying because of the amount of validation that we felt for all the work we put in. It was an amazing feeling, but it was also sad to know that it was over. But it was nice to go out on a bang.”
