(All High School One-Acts performed on the Theatre Winter Haven Mainstage)
Thursday
1 pm - 1:45 pm
The Lottery
by Brainerd Duffield
Adapted by Shirley Jackson
presented by Harrison School for the Arts
This unusual play with its shattering last scene has proven so successful it is probably winning more contests presently than any other short play. Published originally in The New Yorker magazine, it produced an unprecedented reaction, and this dramatization captures the story that has become an internationally known classic. Like the story, the play starts as people are assembling for the lottery. What family will it be this time? Which member? Only gradually do we begin to suspect the nature of the lottery as the play builds swiftly to its crucial and moving climax. The tension and thrill of the play are built into its very structure.
Thursday
2 pm - 2:45 pm
Royal Tea
By Cindy J. Dlugolecki
presented by TGC&D Theatre
The Fairy Godmother's retirement was just announced. What are the Princesses and other fairy tale heroines going to do? After a little soul searching, they being to question the shallowness of their lives. Are they what heroines should be? Why do they always need to be rescued? It's time for a change.
Thursday
3 pm - 3:45 pm
A Dark Stain
presented by Cypress Creek High School
Davidson High School is a quiet community school until the day a student decides to shoot his classmates. This play is a look at the mindset of that boy and of the lives of the people affected by his murderous rampage. It is not a true story, but it could be. These are not real people, but they could be. School shootings are a contagion, a dark stain on our American lifestyle. It needs to stop.
Thursday
4 pm - 4:45 pm
Over the River and Through the Woods
By Joe DiPietro
presented by Boone High School
Nick routinely visits his grandparents every Sunday for Sunday Night dinner until he has to tell them he has been offered his dream job out of state. He tells them but it doesn't sit so well. Frank, Aida, Nunzio, and Emma do their level best to keep Nick close by and that includes bringing to dinner the lovely and single - Caitlin to dinner.
Thursday
5 pm - 5:45 pm
Fickle: A Fancy French Farce
By Meg Miroshnik
presented by Windermere Preparatory School
Fickle: A Fancy French Farce is a liberal and lovingly modern adaptation of Pierre de Marivaux’s 18th-century play La Double Inconstance. True to the tradition of French Farce, this adaptation brims with exaggerated characters, mistaken identities, physical comedy, and romantic entanglements. The story centers on the Prince, who kidnaps a village girl, Silvia, in hopes of winning her love. However, Silvia remains steadfastly devoted to her fiancé, Harlequin. Undeterred, the Prince enlists his cunning servants to break up the couple by manipulating their emotions. As misunderstandings, deceptions, and flirtations spiral out of control, the characters’ loyalties shift, humorously exposing the “fickle” nature of love. With witty dialogue and a fast-paced plot, the play keeps the audience engaged as the characters navigate the chaotic web of romantic confusion.
Friday
10 am - 10:45 am
Hotel Pickle
By Sam Havens
presented by Harmony High School
Two young innkeepers are struggling to make a success of a once elegant hostelry in the Hamptons. With quirky residents and a crazy chef, matters only get worse when a Hollywood horror movie producer and his team of peculiars decide to stay at the hotel.
Friday
11 am - 11:45 am
The Carol of the Bell
By Ian Brett Gadapee
presented by Calvary Christian Academy
For over 2,000 years, Father Christmas has rung the Devil's Knell, one ring for every year since the birth of Jesus Christ. When Father Christmas abruptly stops the knell midway through, Mother Christmas calls on their old friend Father Time to help Father Christmas find the meaning of Christmas again - hopefully, before the bell rusts forever.
Friday
12 noon - 12:45 pm
Funeral Bread
By Nigel Berkeley
presented by Ocoee High School
Three sisters come together to mourn the death of their uncle.
Through moments of humor and heartache, the sisters navigate their shared history and present struggles, while confronting their individual feelings of guilt, regret, and longing for the past. The play ultimately highlights the profound ties that bind us to our loved ones, reflected in the interconnectedness of these three sisters. Their connection akin to a Hoberman sphere - expanding and contracting in harmony
Through moments of humor and heartache, the sisters navigate their shared history and present struggles, while confronting their individual feelings of guilt, regret, and longing for the past. The play ultimately highlights the profound ties that bind us to our loved ones, reflected in the interconnectedness of these three sisters. Their connection akin to a Hoberman sphere - expanding and contracting in harmony
Friday
2 pm - 2:45 pm
Jocko or, The Monkey's Husband
By Tim Kelly
presented by Windermere High School
Mixed marriage is one theme of this one-act play of fantasy and legend, in which it is at times difficult to decipher the monkeys from the humans. Members of the audience intimidate a conceited playwright who has an idea for a new play. His heroine is a female monkey, Jocko, who falls in love with an exiled European, Don Delgado. Out of disgust for humanity, they retreat to the jungle.The spectators agree and disagree with the opinions expressed, and it becomes difficult to distinguish the illusions of theatre and the reality of the world.
Friday
3 pm - 3:45 pm
Kodachrome
By Adam Symkowicz
presented by New World School of the ArtsWelcome to Colchester, a small town where everybody knows each other and the pace of life allows the pursuit of love to take up as much space as it needs. Our tour guide is Suzanne, the town photographer, who lets us peek into her neighbors’ lives to catch glimpses of romance in all its stages of development. A play about love, nostalgia, the seasons and how we learn to say goodbye.
Friday
4 pm - 4:45 pm
The Tricks of Scapin
By Moliere
Adapted by Aurand Harris
presented by Freedom High School
In this lively adaptation of Molière's beloved commedia dell'arte play, we are introduced to Scapin, a brazen and devious servant whose cunning knows no bounds. Two young men, Octave and Leandre, turn to him for help after making marriage promises to women their fathers would never approve of. Through a whirlwind of improvisation, mischief, and outrageous schemes, Scapin not only manages to assist the lovers but also seizes the opportunity for personal revenge. But when one of his tricks goes awry and his allies abandon him, will Scapin's quick wits be enough to save him from the consequences?
Friday
5 pm - 5:45 pm
The Whole Shebang
By Rich Orloff
presented by Lawton Chiles High School
This play asks the question, "What if the entire universe was just some nerd's science project?" In a classroom in a dimension far beyond ours, a student striving for a "Master of the Universe" degree gives an oral presentation on an unusual thesis -- the creation of the heavens and the earth.
Saturday
9 am - 9:45 am
The Void
By Randi Lundgren
presented by Godby High School
This is a play about the place you go between dreams. The place where memory and reality merge. Where all the sides of you ARE the reality. One boy faces life and death inside... "The Void."
Saturday
10 am - 10:45 am
Mmmbeth
By Allison Williams
presented by Emerald Coast Theatre Company
An absurdist adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Saturday
11 am - 11:45 am
The Return of Romeo and Juliet
By Troupe 6358
presented by Doral Performing Arts & Entertainment Academy
Commedia Del'Arte originated in Italy with characters that used improvisation as their method to create their play. These characters are funny, dramatic, curious, and serious. In this piece we will be presenting the story of Romeo and Juliet with a few twists involving the storyline and using Commedia Del'Arte methods.
Saturday
12 noon - 12:45 pm
FLATS
By Ozzie Quintana
presented by Miami Arts Studio
In the early 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked into a space race during the Cold War. Each accomplishment was being won by the Soviets having sent the first animal into space and later sending the first man into space. The United States assembled a crew of male astronauts in the Mercury 7. These men were put through a difficult and strenuous testing program. In the midst of all this, a group of women strived to join the Mercury 7 by going through the same testing program. This is the story of those women, dubbed the Mercury 13. Their story is a story not just of challenges and skill, but also of perseverance in a nation that did not give them a chance to show that it didn't have to be the American man in space, but the first American. The four women of this play will embark on a lifelong journey that will change their lives as well as open up the gates for the future of women in space.
Saturday
2 pm - 2:45 pm
Radium Girls
By DW Gregory
presented by Magnet Innovation Center
"In 1926, radium was a miracle cure, Madame Curie an international celebrity, and luminous watches the latest rage—until the girls who painted them began to fall ill with a mysterious disease. Inspired by a true story, Radium Girls traces the efforts of Grace Fryer, a dial painter, as she fights for her day in court. Her chief adversary is her former employer, Arthur Roeder, an idealistic man who cannot bring himself to believe that the same element that shrinks tumors could have anything to do with the terrifying rash of illnesses among his employees. As the case goes on, however, Grace finds herself battling not just with the U.S. Radium Corporation, but with her own family and friends, who fear that her campaign for justice will backfire".
Saturday
3 pm - 3:45 pm
Elektra
By Elizabeth Brendel Horn
presented by South Broward High School
Following the brutal murder of her father at the hands of her mother, Elektra is trapped, in body and mind, as she yearns for revenge and contends with the voices in her head. Where is she? How did she get there? Where is her brother, Orestes? And why does the doctor who visits her seem so...familiar? Through a fusion of elevated and contemporary language—and with a Greek chorus that lends itself to movement-based storytelling—Elektra tells the ancient Greek tragedy with a dynamic and provocative examination of the mental, physical and societal barriers preventing Elektra from acting out her will.
Saturday
4 pm - 4:45 pm
It's Not You, It's Me
By Don Zolidis
presented by Viera High School
Whether your boyfriend is a Canadian secret agent or monk in training, or your girlfriend is a psychic or pathological liar, one thing is for sure they are about to dump you. We explore the painful art of breaking up through Awkard realistic characters.
Saturday
5 pm - 5:45 pm
Six: Teen Edition
By Lucy Moss & Toby Marlow
presented by Star Center Youth Theatre
The pop retelling of the Six Wives of Henry the VIII. The queens go head to head to see which queen is your favorite, which queen went through the most hardships, which one changed history the most? Perhaps, we shouldn't compare them at all? Answer these questions and more at, Six : Teen Edition