Where can one find Malala Yousafzai, Blanche DuBois, Philip Wang, HUCCI and Dolly Parton on the same stage? They are all characters in Yorktown High School’s One-Person Shows, to be presented at Yorktown High School’s Black Box Theatre, on Thursday, April 24, from 6-9 p.m., Friday, April 25, from 4-9 p.m. and Saturday, April 26, from 1-10 p.m. Admission is free.
The One-Person Shows are 30-minute productions written, staged, and acted by the senior Yorktown theatre students. The productions are a culminating project in the Yorktown Theatre Arts Program, requiring self-reflection, research, writing and rehearsal.
“It’s a chance for the students to show everything they’ve learned about characterization, directing, movement, and technical theatre over the last four years,” said Carol Cadby, director of the Yorktown Theatre Arts Program. Standing on stage alone for 30 minutes is a challenge, but the students have been preparing for this project since Day 1 in theatre class.
Subjects of the shows can come from fiction or history. “The One-Person Shows are not meant to be biographies,” said Cadby. “Instead, each student develops a message around which to build his or her portrayal. The show is usually more about what ‘speaks’ to the student about that person or character, so they select those biographical facts that will lend theatricality and meaning to the show.”
The performance schedule can be found on the Yorktown High School Theatre Arts Department website at http://www.apsva.us//site/Default.aspx?PageID=14459.
In addition to the One Person Show Marathon at Yorktown, Cassatt's - A Kiwi Cafe and Restaurant at Lee Highway and Old Dominion Drive in Arlington will host a photography exhibit with scenes from the shows, from May 11-25.