During the month of October, Bristow High School drama students performed against other Oklahoma school students in a variety of competitions. In recent years, BHS Speech & Drama teacher Jessica Frizzell has seen several of her students succeed, competing and winning at state and national competitions. On October 15 and 31, three of her students, all BHS seniors, performed as a team in one-act play regional and state competitions.
Never heard of a one-act play competition? Until I was introduced to Frizzell and her students a few years ago, I, too, had no idea what a one-act play competition encompassed. Frizzell explained that a one act play “is a complete play done in a timeframe that is not allowed to be less than thirty minutes and not to exceed forty-five minutes in length. For competition, you are required to bring all of your sets, actors, costumes, and whatever you need or will use onto the stage and remove all of it from the stage within that time limit. You are not allowed to leave anything on the stage after you are done, or you can be disqualified.”
According to Frizzell, BHS’ one-act play performance team is comprised of seniors Eva Roberts, Wake Tidwell, and Isaiah Wilson. The team performed the classic Victorian comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde and adapted into a oneact play by Jason Pizarello. BHS drama students competed in Cushing against 6 regional school teams on October 15. Frizzell also noted that Bristow’s one-act play team competes at the 5A level and finished the Cushing competition as runners-up in the oneact play category, advancing the team to state competitions.
Additionally, Frizzell further stated that the top 10 perform-
See Drama, Page Three ers of the day are chosen by the judges, receiving all-star acting awards for their efforts. She explained that all three BHS oneact performers received the awards at day’s end.
Following the regional competition in Cushing, Bristow hosted the 5A one-act state competition at the Freeland Center for the Performing Arts on October 31. In total, nine schools brought one-act play teams to the state competition: Ada, Bristow, Cushing, Elgin, Grove, McLoud, Oologah, Stigler, and Weatherford. Tidwell, Wilson, and Roberts were once again declared all-state actors and named runners-up for their one-act play performances. As a parent, Roberts proudly boasted that “of the top 10 actors chosen at state, Bristow had the most” with Frizzell echoing the sentiment.
Finally, Roberts stated that Bristow Public School Board recognized the 3 students for being all-state students on Monday evening, November 11.