BSM’s One Act play is moving on to the next competition. On Saturday, February 3, BSM’s One Act will compete in sections for the chance of going on to state. The team earned their spot in the competition after coming in second in their conference meet on January 22.

This year, the One Act cast is performing “SPEECH!,” written by Mr. Mike Fotis and Mr. Joe Bozic, a comedy about a speech team competing in their section finals with the goal of going to state. Ms. Anna Hickey-Fotis, the director of the play, chose the piece due to its lighthearted tone. “I came and saw Antigone in Munich this fall, and I thought it would be fun for the students to do a comedy after such a serious drama. I knew this one already, it had a lot of characters in it, it was a lot of fun, and it was easily cut to 35 minutes, so we went with it,” Hickey-Fotis said.

The play follows Mary Tuttle, played by senior Marly Neururer, and several of her classmates as they work their way through a series of unfortunate events. “Mary helps guide the audience throughout the play. She is very invested in going to state with the speech team,” Neururer said.

The cast is eager to show off what they’ve been working on for the past month at the section competition. “I am incredibly excited for sections. It’s so fun to see other plays that you are competing against, you get to make friends with other people, and you get to just enjoy the shows. Sections is a great place to see how much your show has improved since the beginning as well as giving it an incredibly competitive feeling,” senior Blake Brown said.

Hickey-Fotis is also very honored to be moving on to the section competition, especially in her first year of directing, but her goals are less focused on winning and more on growing as performers. “I’m not a huge fan of theater for competition per say because when you’re judging it, it depends on what you bring to the show so there’s no way to please every single judge anyway. I was focused on kids learning the art of comedy, of timing, of diction, of performance, and helping them to grow in some way and have a great show and have fun doing it,” Hickey-Fotis said.

Sections is a high level competition, with several schools performing and only one advancing. “Once everyone performs, we all wait for the judges decision to move on. One school goes to state, and then there is a runner up. It’s really hard to get passed sections. I’ve been to sections before, and the judges are very nit-picky, but it’s really fun, and I can’t wait to perform,” Neururer said.

BSM’s One Act will be performing around 1:20 pm on February 3 at the Academy of Holy Angels. The competition is open to the public and supporters are encouraged to attend.