Every year in the seventh period class, we prepare a competition one act play. The primary competition where we perform is District Thespians, however we also bring it to Florida Theatre Conference and, if selected at District Thespians, State Thespians. Since this production is produced and rehearsed through seventh period, only Theatre IV Honors students, Pre-IB Theatre, and IB Theatre students in that class are able to participate with very limited exceptions.

Selected texts can be comedic, dramatic, or even musical. Due to competition rules, they must be under 40 minutes in length, including setting and striking the set. The same rules for content and asterisks apply as Individual Events, and more info about those rules can be found on that page.

At PHU, we rehearse and prepare our One Act entirely through Mrs. Timberlake’s seventh period class. This includes casting and design of all technical elements, including a set which must be highly portable. As we approach the competition dates, there may be limited after school rehearsal time.

We perform our one act at Florida Theatre Conference and District Thespians festival. The performance at FTC is in many ways a practice run of performing the play with an audience and judges to prepare for District Thespians. Furthermore, the process of performing at FTC and at District are highly similar in that they both involve loading in the set to the backstage area in a quiet and organized manner, having a set amount of time in a dressing room to get into costume and makeup, moving the set onstage, performing, striking, and receiving judge feedback.

At District Thespians, one acts are graded on a similar scale to Individual Events, which can be found on the District IV website. Additionally, every year three one act plays that compete at District festival are selected by the judges to progress to State Thespians Festival. Troupe 5590 is highly competitive and is often recognized with this honor. If selected, we continue improving the play and compete again there with the goal of receiving a Superior rating.