The Chieftain Theatre troupe opened for the One Act Play Festival Dec. 3. The department placed 7th in the One Act Festival at Gretna High School.

Their production “Hammered: A Thor and Loki Play” was written by Christian Borle. One act plays are typically 30 minutes and can either be original pieces or snippets of a play, according to Ullom. This year was Ullom’s second year participating in the festival.

“This year was such a fantastic time with the group of people I had the pleasure of working with,” Ullom said.

Junior Ciara Stueve who played Atli and Sif, said while this year was really exciting, she missed the more competitive aspect of the festival, but enjoyed the lightheartedness of the play.

“One Act used to be competitive and an opportunity to see other shows and go against other actors to improve yourself and your show,” Stueve said. “However, this has changed to a more relaxed scene. One Act can be seen as an introduction for those interested in theater.”

Theater director Joseph Hamik said they have participated in One Act for as long as he has been teaching at East, four years, but the department took part before that as well. The departments held auditions after the fall show premiere. To prepare students for the play, he said he had students look up Norse mythology to get into the background of the characters. He said the students spent after school rehearsal time memorizing lines and perfecting the set.

Hamik said next year they are going to focus more on putting on the fall show and making it a bigger event. Next to the One Act play, the Fall show brings in bigger audience, more money, and takes more time and effort to execute.

“At least for next year we are going to put a hold on One Act for a bit because it is a really tough time of year to try to get kids into rehearsals because there are so many other activities,” Hamik said. “It has sort of become more pressure than it is worth.”