Wilsonville’s Theatre Department has a lot of student involvement, from student choreographers, composers, to now playwrights. Senior Abi Edwards has written a one act play titled Article One, which competed at the 2019 NWOC One Act competition and will also be competing at the Thespian State Conference in early April.

NWOC was held in Wilsonville’s auditorium, and hosted four other schools in the area, as well as many Wilsonville theatre students who stayed to help the competition run smoothly. Schools bring one acts that they prepared and perform in front of judges. There are games and activities that go on between each school’s one acts, such as a large game of Family Feud.  

Article One is set hundreds of years into the future, where a small independent state bans literature that discusses taboo topics such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, and any fear of the government, under what is called, “The Protection Act.” A 17 year old girl, Alice has the bravery to stand up to those in authority around her as she struggles to understand exactly why this information is being hidden, and what good that is doing.

Edward’s, the first Wilsonville Student to write and then compete with a one act, stated she wanted to write a one act because, “I wanted to write a one act primarily because of my passion toward the subject matter. Literature is important to me, and I believe that theatre is the best avenue to explore this topic because of how it influences the lives of people. Theatre directly speaks to an audience, seeing someone emote on a stage leaves the audience with a more impactful message than words on the page.”
    Wilsonville received many awards for their performance of Article One, including Outstanding Supporting Actor for Freshman Chance Kirk, Outstanding Leading Actor for Mikaela Ochocki, Outstanding Student Director for Katie Walter, and Outstanding One Act for Article One as a whole.

Edward’s states that her next steps in preparing for State will e to edit her script based on the judges comments, and that all the cast and her can do is rehearse and practice until the time comes to compete.