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Luverne High School drama department will present two one-act plays for the fall production season.
The students will present “One Lane Bridge” and “Hamlet and Zombies” Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27-29, in the school’s performing arts center.
The plays continue a theme the school’s marching band (whose field routine was called “Haunted) began.
Director Shawn Kinsinger said the drama students requested to perform plays in the spooky/horror genre for two reasons.
“First was the proximity of the performance dates to Halloween,” he said. “Secondly, the marching band had just revealed that their show was going to be the same theme. There is crossover between the two activities and there was a lot of hype about the idea.”
However, one-act plays generally don’t involve large casts, as Luverne’s fall activity usually boasts more than 20 students.
“After looking at the options for high school-aged actors and actresses, there just wasn’t a show that fit our cast as far as size,” Kinsinger said. “I started looking at one-acts and found a couple that would get everyone involved. It also allowed for a bit of flexibility.”
“One Lane Bridge” by Stephen Gregg is a ghost story that takes place on a canyon road in Colorado.
The main character is 16-year-old Eli (portrayed by Chase Matthiesen) who is driving through the mountain canyon. He doesn’t know anything about his soon-to-be passenger, Samantha (Alex Perkins), except that she’s a friend of a friend that needs a ride to Home Depot.
Eli’s terrible driving soon sparks an argument, and the conversation takes an odd, dark turn. Eli’s story is haunting but Samantha’s story leaves Eli driving too fast, not because he’s going to be late, but because he wants out of the car.
The half-hour production contains several narrators who assist in telling the haunted stories.
“Hamlet and Zombies” by Will Averill provides tongue-in-cheek horror humor that is more familiar to audiences, since the 45-minute play is based on William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Something is rotting in the state of Denmark, and Hamlet (portrayed by Parker Carbonneau) may be the only one in on the humor.
With the help of his friend Horatio (Steven Woods) and cousin Laertes (Bri Kinsinger), Hamlet solves a mystery of his mother’s (Grace Ingebretsen) marriage to his uncle (Xavier McKenzie). He observes his father’s transformation from king to zombie king (Chris Bonilla), saves his love, Ophelia (Abby Boltjes), and fends off both the Norwegians and zombie hoards.
Other cast members include Polonius (Zander Carbonneau), Voltimand (Katherine Pizel), Rosencrantz (Joelia Lopez), Guidenstern (Ashlyn Johnson), Marcellus (Hallie Pergrande), Bernardo (Elizabeth Mulder), Francisco (Rebecca Hoogland), Raynaldo (Emily Carrillo), Fortinbras (Leigha Ehlers), sentinel (Brooke Vos), grave diggers (Myles Trimble and Bethany Behr), Captain (Jessica Tunnissen), ambassador (Ayah Alinizi) and lead priest (Kaitlin Conger).
Conger also serves as stage manager along with Travis Schempp. Also on the production crew are Egypt Forrest, Zoey Berghorst, Camryn Aukes and Isabella Benson.
Cost is $4 for students and $6 for adults.
Each of the three performances begins at 7 p.m.