One act advances to state festival

The cast and crew of Custer High School Drama Department’s one act contest play will be taking their show on the road this week headed for Rapid City for the South Dakota Class A One Act Play Festival. The production, “About Her” was one of two plays to advance to state from among seven schools that participated in the Region VI contest held at the Custer High School Theater last Wednesday.
In addition to advancing to the state festival, the production also received the unusual honor of having every one of the seven cast members be awarded a superior actor medal by the judges. Receiving individual acting awards were lead Odalys Estrada who plays domestic violence victim “Sharla”, Hailey Hislop, Tim Johnson, Lesane Hernandez, Taylee Schramm, Mical Grace and Miles Ellman.
The play is under the direction of Susan Bowen. Crew members include stage hand Pete Hernandez and Olivia Lubben on lights.
Since Custer re-entered the South Dakota High School Activities Association one act play competition four years ago, every year’s production has gone to state.
The state festival performance of “About Her” is set for Friday at 4 p.m. at Rapid City Central High School Theater.
The state one act play festival is traditionally held the first full weekend of February at one of several locations in East River and usually includes Class A, B and AA schools from around the state. However, because of COVID-19, the festival has been broken up this year with separate festivals for each class being held in Brookings, Brandon and Rapid City. The festivals are set for this Thursday through Saturday.