Wimberley OAP lives up to the high standards

The Lone Star Theatre, Wimberley High School’s One Act Play and theater program, is continuing their success as they advanced to the Area Round of Competition with their performance of the play “The Marriage of Bette and Boo” by Christopher Durang.

But for the group, it is more than that. They are trying to reach the same level of success as their predecessors did in One Act Play.

It is no secret that the One Act Play program is highly regarded at Wimberley High School. Gary Wyatt and Lydia Miller-Wyatt not only started the program but also helped build the current theater building that now has their name on the side of it.

For Lone Star Theatre President Melody Tillotson, who plays Soot in the production, getting back to the heights where this theater program was before is a major goal for the senior class.

“We do have a little saying that LST (Lone Star Theatre) is where champions perform,” Tillotson said. “They (past performers) have really taken hold of that legacy and took off with it. We have definitely wavered in and out for the past few years while going through different directors and stuff, but last year we went to region, which is the farthest we’ve gone in five years… So we are back on track. We think, and we are, heading as far as our level will take us.”

Jack Garrett, who is the social officer for the Lone Star Theatre and plays Matt in the production of the play, says not only is One Act Play about representing yourself but the entire Wimberley Community.

“Other things with One Act,” Jack Garrett said. “When you first join, a lot of people will say “Class and Style.” What that means is that we are representing not only our theater, but we are representing Wimberley High School and the Wimberley Valley community as a whole. So we are deeply rooted within Wimberley… Being well behaved and always being 100% is a big expectation going into One Act Play.”

Eveleigh Jennings, Vice President of Lone Star Theater and portraying Bette in the play, says that the legacy of the Lone Star Theater is an important task to keep up, especially for how long the group has been active.

“One Act Play is competitive theater,” Eveleigh Jennings said. “We have our One Act Play competing against other schools with their show and Wimberley has been doing this for a very long time… One Act Play but Wimberley has been doing it for nearly 30 years. A big part of it is because One Act Play is competitive and has a lot of interactions with other schools, like Jack was saying. Having teamwork, being respectful, setting a good example, especially with this legacy Wimberley has where champions perform… It’s those words that are still important to us. Even though we haven’t met Mr. Wyatt, that legacy has definitely lived on is very important to us even now 30 years later.”

Wyatt passed away in 2014.

This year’s One Act Play “The Marriage of Bette & Boo” is a dark comedy, absurdist play that follows the story of Bette and Boo from the 1950s to the 1980s.

For both Tilloston and Jennings, what separates Wimberey from the competition is balance of dark themes and comedy.

“Our play is a dark comedy,” Tilloston said. “It is very shocking at first for most and deals with a lot of intense themes in a comical way. The biggest separation from our show and other shows is that ours really pops.”

“One of the big things that set us apart,” Jennings added. “Is that we do these really dark themes and situations and we add a sense of levity and shocking comedy to it while still having the emotional weight that these things hold. We are not pretending that they are not horrible and awful things. It has these deep and sincere emotional moments with these characters that are not two dimensional but are deep, have a character arc and grow while being absurdist and over-the-top. We are seemingly successfully balancing the two things, which has been a journey to get there. But that is the biggest thing that sets it apart. It is not just funny all the way through, but it’s not this intense drama. It has a nice mix of the two.”

For OAP and Lone Star Theatre director Rhonda Riali, the reasoning for choosing this play is a combination of the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has left behind and the nostalgia for 1950s tv series.

“I feel like the past two years have been extremely ridiculous,” Rhonda Riali said. “The amount of things we had to deal with as teachers, students, just the whole world. So it was like ‘If one more thing happens, how much more can we take?’ To me this play is as low as you could go but we are going to treat it in a different way. The play is set in the 50s kind of like what my grandparents were as young adults, and so I have a little bit of nostalgia for that time period. It’s like one of those sitcoms where everyone was perfect on television. We know that’s not what happened, but that is how it was portrayed. So this show comes across as one of those sitcoms where everything is fine, but it is really ridiculous.”

In order to balance the themes of the play, each student has taken an interpretation of what the play is in order to take the team to success.

For Jennings, it is about understanding the perspective of the author as the play was based on his experiences.

“I think a really big part of it is thoroughly understanding where the author was coming from when he wrote it,” Jennings said. “A lot of this show was based on the author, Christopher Durang, and it’s based on his life heavily. Just understanding that the heavy side of things helps create the levity, because once you understand how messed up something is or how dark it is, it’s easier to play into the lighter side of it. It creates that needed sense of lightness and comedy.”

For Tilloston, it is about understanding the relationship between people, and how they use it to cope with tragedy in their lives.

“My personal interpretation of this show, how I can deeply connect with it, and bring a light to balance everything out is to interepate the show as a representation of how people use their relationships with other people, substances, behaviors, and how they use this relationship to cope with the tragedy of their lives,” Tilloston said. “How they also use their relationships to bring light and hope into situations that can seem really dark and seem to tear you down. So I think being aware of that theme has really helped me with my performance.”

For Garrett, it is about everyone being on the same page.

“With that, all of us as actors being on the same page regarding what that theme is allows us to come together as a unit in order to balance that out” Garrett said. “It really helps to come across to the judges as well if we are on the same page regarding what we are trying to do with the real and the comedy.”

While trying to push her students in the right direction, Riali says that play gradually changed from the beginning as she and her students worked together to put together an award-winning play.

“The direction actually changes over time,” Riali said. “But we started out with my vision of what I see for the show and it grew from there. In the beginning it was going to be all ridiculous, trying not to come across something that might be too real. We took a little bit of a turn by playing with some of those real moments to bring some balance together. So we developed that process together as the show started. It starts with an idea, a grand vision, a commanding image, and we work together as I see what they are bringing to it as well and try to keep it what I want it to be. But they work so well together, as these kids do, and they are so amazing.”

The Wimberley One Act Play group will perform at Area April 2 at Waco University High School.