Headed to State

LAUREL – Shocked, excited, thrilled, joyful and relief.

Those are the emotions experienced by students and coaches alike when Laurel-Concord- Coleridge students found out they qualified for state One Act play production after winning their district competition last week.

Cheers erupted during the announcement and a celebration took place in the gym at Stanton, the site of district competition. Pictures were taken, phone calls made, text messages sent and social media updated.

But when students boarded the bus for home, exhaustion took over.

“The kids had been up since about 5 a.m. that day,” said Sarah Beckwith, LCC’s One Act director. “On the bus they settled in. They were happy but so tired. The students have put in a mountain of effort and have gone through a lot of practicing with very little complaint. I’m really happy that they are seeing success.”

Kolten Settje was recognized as an Outstanding Performer at districts, playing the character Nick Bottom in LCC’s production of “A Puckish Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The play provides a twist on the Shakespeare classic with three plots running simultaneously, Beckwith said, with this premise: In an effort to marry whom they want to marry without the restrictions of laws and family preferences, four young people escape into the forest near Athens. In the forest, a warring fairy king and queen fight over who gets custody of a servant child, creating havoc. Meanwhile, a group of inexperienced actors - also in the forest attempt to rehearse a play they will be performing for the duke of Athens’ wedding.

Settje said his character - “an actor who wants to be good but definitely isn’t” - was challenging in speaking in a Shakespearean way. Also, his character turns into a donkey during the play.

Although he came off the district stage with doubts about his own performance, Settje admits it was mostly in his head.

“Our acting during districts was probably the best acting that we have done all year,” he said. “We were all together and all had fun acting.”

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge last took the state stage in 2014 where they came away with the runner-up trophy.

This year, the cast will take the much larger stage at the Johnny Carson Theater in Norfolk for state competition. LCC is set to take the stage at 8:30 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 7.

“Johnny Carson Theater, by comparison to any of the other theaters on which we have performed this year, is huge,” Beckwith said. “Preparing students to work with that kind of stage is going to be a trick.”

More than 30 cast members aided by 14 crew members worked on adapting to the larger stage and refining their performances based on judge’s comments.

LCC will face off against Aquinas Catholic, Crofton, David City, Bridgeport and Centura.

“State competition is replete with talent,” Beckwith said. “Aquinas Catholic, for instance, has won four out of the last five state championship. The year they did not win was the COVID year. This is just some of the strength of competition that we will be facing that day.”

Settje is looking forward to getting on that stage one more time.

“We have not seen any of these plays so they could all be just as good as us,” he said of the state competition. “As long as we all do our thing and have fun while doing it, I think we’ll have a good shot.”

Regardless of the outcome, Settje is grateful for the community support as well as the guidance provided by one-act coaches.

“We could not be where we are without them,” he said.