JHS STUDENTS SHINE IN ONE-ACT PERFORMANCES

Tracy Fisher, Jackson High School drama teacher, gets to sit back and allow others to experience the joys and agonies of directing this week.

While Fisher's guidance has helped keep the one-act plays that hit the stage Tuesday and Wednesday on track, the directing duties have fallen to a pair of students.

Adam Conklin directs the opening play, "Why I am a Bachelor," while Jeni Zinner takes the directing chair for "Punch and Duty." The student-directed one-acts will be performed in the newly-revamped JHS auditorium at 7 p.m., Tuesday and 4 p.m., Wednesday -- allowing plenty of time for football tailgating.

Why I am a BachelorTim Nicolai is the narrator of the tale, a scholarly, middle-aged bachelor who travels the countryside, preaching on the evils of marriage. With him is a crew of actors and actresses who apparently re-enact their own real-life courtship and marriage traumas.

The couple chosen by the narrator is Algernon and Henrietta. Alternately, the young couple is shown as a doting, starry-eyed young couple in love, then as a bickering, miserable pair after two years of marriage.

Autumn Clardy and Matt Schaefer are ideal in their roles as Henrietta and Algernon. Cooing and gazing fondly at Henrietta, Algernon pledges that he would rather "feast on your beauty" than eat or drink earthly food. She promises to get up every morning and fix him breakfast. "But I wouldn't letyou," he insists, only to be told that doing so would make her "very happy.""The poor girl really believes it," Nicholi's character cuts in as he does throughout. At first "Algie" even loves Henrietta's family. Always nearby are Henrietta's mother (Amanda Lowes), her little sister Ida May (Jennifer Hotop) and dear old Aunt Emma (Tiffany McElreath) from the country. Soon Algie's inattention and insensitivity, combined with Henrietta's nagging andthe rest of the family's constant butting in, leads to the collapse not only of a marriage, but of the narrator's carefully-orchastrated play within a play.

Aside from Schaefer and Clardy's strong performances, Lowes, Hotop and McElreath are strong as the busy-body family members. McElreath's backwoods accent and expressions make her especially enjoyable.

Nicolai, always comfortable in the spotlight, comes across well as the polished, educated lecturer.

Punch and DutyWhile the rest of the high school students are dancing their cares away at the Homecoming dance, Liz (Katie Fink) and Val (Mary Bono) are two geeky student council workers, stuck manning the punch bowl. Dateless, they can only watch the others dance while they philosophize on their woes.

Meanwhile, preppy snobs David and Kirsten (Blake Burres and Meredith Lape) belittle the pair and spike the punch. The girls pretend to have dates who are inexplicably hanging out in the bathroom all evening.

Val has just described her harrowing experience of having to turn down the school's biggest loser, Robert Riley, for a date, when Robert (Zach Rice) shows up. He angrily demands to know who Val's mystery boyfriend is, with initials "DNE." They finally explain that the initials ("Val [heart symbol] DNE" are on the table cloth in huge letters.) stand for "does not exist."In the end Liz walks off with Robert, deciding a loser is better than no date at all and leaving Val fuming at the punch bowl.

Other attention is drawn to the unlikely couple of aging teacher Mrs. Roswell (Lydia Blades) and cafeteria custodian Shorty (A.J. Biri). The play is ended with a flourishing dance routine, including the two directors, Zinner and Conklin.

Lighting for both plays is being handled by Catie Myers and Jeanna Bolen, while make-up artists are Amanda Hyden, Melissa Harrison, Ashley Booker, Morgan Meyer, Tressa Honaas and Jennifer Adams. Ryan Frenz and Paul Gholson serve as stage hands, while Kirsten Roempoegal and Sarah Lintner areprompters.

Previewing a play a full week before its opening night is about like describing a new job before one's first day at work. The placement of props and other bits of fine-tuning were still going on Wednesday, when the reviewer watched the productions. A handful of lines were forgotten by actors and some prompts missed.

It was readily apparent, though, that the two one-acts will givetheatre-goers an enjoyable evening of comedy, with some well-choreographed dancing thrown in. Both directors should be commended.