Groton’s one act festival, arguably its most attended and enjoyable theatre production, continued its strong record this year with five new one-act shows. These shows were directed by six Groton students and used four original Grotonian works as their scripts. This year’s festival, rather unfortunately held in the black box theater rather than the main stage, was the Circle’s most popular yet, with lines extending out the door an hour before the show even began. Remarkable, especially for a school of our size. Clearly, all of the students involved worked extraordinarily hard to create something extraordinarily special for us to view. So who, and what, comprised the one act festival this year?

The first show, “30 Minutes to Charlie,” a unique mix of comedy and tragedy, was the only piece in the festival that was not written by a Groton student. The play takes place in New York City on September 11th, 2001, where a prudent, apathetic executive (Julian Alam ‘19) is trying to get his arm stitched before he has a meeting with possible client Charlie. Accompanied by an earnest assistant (Karla Sanford ‘19), the entire show takes place in a hospital waiting room with an annoyed secretary (Ivana Primero ‘17) overseeing the pair’s antics while a comedic nurse (Lucy Chatfield ‘18) is bewildered by the fact that they do not know the terrors going on outside their business bubble. A melancholy piece, the shows light comedy is often overshadowed by the incredibly grave circumstance the characters find themselves in.

The next show was “Mia”, one of the festival’s two strictly serious plays, which was written by Amy Lu ’19. The show centers on Chloe, played by Josie Fulton ’18, who is a teenage girl in a session with a therapist portrayed by exchange student Anna Cardy. The play walks through Chloe’s life at a Groton-esque boarding school before she was sent home on medical leave. The cruel titular character, played by Anna Thorndike ’16, was a major factor in Chloe’s descent into bulimia, and the play mainly focuses on their relationship. With well-cast supporting roles from Sophie Conroy ’19 and Lizzie Tobeason ’16, a crazy plot twist, and a message that is very important for Groton students to hear, “Mia” was an inventive and incredibly moving show.

The middle of the festival was dominated by two comedies, the first of which was “Crushing It.” Directed by the unshakable duo of Christian Carson ’18 and Phoebe Fry ’17 and written by the uber-creative Sophie Park ’19, “Crushing It” is an energetic joy ride through an over-the-top Groton Revisit Day. An astounding number of love triangles quickly emerge throughout the show, resulting in an uproarious Midsummer Night’s Dream ending. Richie Santry ’18 plays a womanizing admission head in a secret affair with Lily Cratsley ’19, mother to Jon Lamson ’18, who is in a relationship with Lyndsey Toce ’19, cousin to Andrew Porter ’20, who is crushing on her boyfriend (Jon). Wild.

The second comedy of the festival, Chaos in a Clunker, was written and directed by one-act-veteran Luke Holey ’16. The play tells the story of Mr. Savage (Jack Fitzpatrick ‘16), an insane entrepreneur, mentoring shy and anxious Felix Keagan (Zahin Das ‘16). The hilarious pair are traveling to the Eastern Mid-Atlantic Region Doormat Convention when the eccentric Officer Leslie Jenkins (Alex Waxman ‘18) pulls them over for speeding. The story gets crazier and crazier from there, and the humor never lets up. Writer-Director Holey described his experience with the show, saying “It’s really fun working with first time actors because they’re so eager to do well and are really good at taking direction. My cast had three incredibly talented actors, who still don’t quite realize how capable they are. Getting to rehearse with them was a special part of my Senior Spring, and I hope that they realize how hilarious and incredible they are.”

The final show of the night was also the one that has had the biggest impact here on the Circle. Inspired by the fall play “The Laramie Project,” James Hovet ’18 crafted a documentary theater piece focusing on mental health at Groton. He says he had three goals when he set out to make the piece, “To make something that was true to the experiences of the people I had interviewed, to make something that was universally relatable, and to make something that did not glamorize or unrealistically dramatize the struggle of mental health issues.” After interviewing __ students on their experience with depression and anxiety on the Circle, James cut and edited their interviews into a play broken into six “moments,” each focusing on a different facet of mental health. The play’s performance was lyrical, deeply moving, and unspeakably powerful. Not a single person in the audience had dry eyes, as it struck a chord with every Grotonian no matter how much personal experience they have had with mental illness.

The festival was hosted by the sardonic Matt Efros ’16 who provided comedic relief in between shows to pass the time. Overall, the performances were huge successes and the perfect ending to an excellent year for the drama department.