In Focus: Bagley One Act Play Team Reaches State Festival for 8 Straight Years

The Bagley High School Drama program has seen great success over the last few years. After receiving a perfect score at the section competition in Crookston, the Bagley High School One Act Play Team is heading to the state’s One Act Play Festival yet again for their staging of “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.”

“Schools choose and prepare a play, and they create costumes, sets, the whole nine yards, and then take that with them and they compete,” explained Marilyn Hood, Bagley High School Director of Theater Activities.

“The judges [score] on a variety of things like your vocal performance, your stage pictures, just your acting in general and all that fun stuff,” said Ava, a 12th grader at Bagley High School who plays the part of the Traveler.

The performance is only one part of the competition, as the stage itself is another aspect of it.

“There are no rules about what your set can be,” said Hood. “We’ve seen a set with just a box or nothing, and sometimes the sets are quite elaborate, but the rule is that the students have to be able to build that set in 10 minutes or less, that’s part of the rules. We travel with our set, we also have a lot of props in the show, so the props are set. All of that has to happen in that 10-minute time.”

And some of these students have been a part of this team before they even started high school.

“I have 11 seniors on the stage this year and some of them have been on the stage for One Act Play since COVID,” said Hood. “Three of the seniors have been on the stage since they were in elementary school.”

“I did the Summer Rec shows when I was little, and then my eighth grade year Mrs. Hood emailed me and a couple other younger kids because they were doing a show called “Orphan Trains,” and they needed small people and I was a small person, so then I got into it and I loved it,” added Ava.

That time together as actors is what helps build chemistry with everyone on stage. It’s a major reason as to why this team has gone to the state festival eight years in a row.

“Being on stage with my friends, it allows for a lot of fluidity and emotion to come through to the audience,” said Drew, a 12th grader at Bagley High School who plays the part of Lawrence. “I think that’s the great thing about acting. Yes, you can read the script and just lines off a page, but you’re not going to get any real emotion until you feel that character. And if you’re out there on the stage and you’re with people that you know and you’ve share those similar emotions with, it makes things a lot easier in the end run.”

“You build such close bonds with everyone on stage,” Ava said. “At the end of the show, I’m kind of standing there and I always turn and I look at Emma, who I’ve been doing this with since my ninth grade year, and every single day we cry. The lights come up and we just start crying ’cause it’s my last year, and it’s just, it’s a really fun thing to be a part of.”