What do nano-technology pants and awkward speed dating have in common?

The Winter One Acts performances, of course!

The WS Theatre Department won first place at the VHSL Patriot District One Acts Competition for its performance in “The Other Room.” In addition to this win, sophomore Will Shipley was picked out of 98 fellow student actors for the “Outstanding Performer” award for his performance as Austin, a boy with autism in “The Other Room.”

“It was about the message of the show,” said Shipley, “it was about not judging a book by its cover and [there] was a bullying theme through it.”

The award winning show centered around an autistic teenage boy trying to connect with Lily (played by sophomore Bonnie McClellan), a friendly girl, while he also tries to overcome the voices in his head.

Along with this show, six other performances were put on at the Winter One Acts this past week from Thursday to Saturday. The other acts include “Friend Request,” “Bench Warrant,” “All Cotton,” “A Little Lunch,” “Hurry!” and “ths phne 2.0: the next generation.”

Each act is directed by a student director, and performed by different levels of theatre students.

“I’m in Theatre three, but I’ve been involved since freshman year,” said senior Michael Willson, who appeared in “Friend Request.”

Others who may not have been involved here at WS as long still were looking forward to performing.

“I’m kind of excited, this is my first One Act,” said sophomore Mallory Astrow, “I’ve been more or less doing theatre since elementary school so I was just really interested in joining in.”

Students have been working hard during class and after school in rehearsals that ran until about 5:30 at night with little time to perfect each act.

“We started working on it right after winter break,” said McClellan, “it was kind of a crunch.”

In the process of preparing, Theatre teacher Bernie DeLeo chose many acts for the students to run through in order to get a feel for how they would work out, and then chose the acts they would later perform.

Most of the shows included a theme of bullying and, in particular, its effects on others.

“The good thing about my show [‘Friend Request’] is that it’s modern and the audience can relate to it,” said Willson.

All the acts showed off the talent our theatre department has to offer, but as for the VHSL District win, “The Other Room” moves on to the Regional Competition held at Lake Braddock HS on Saturday the 16^th.

“Mr. Greenfelder said that the way that it ended, it was so powerful,” said Assistant Principal Becky Brandt during Intermission about “The Other Room,” “it brought tears to my eyes.”