Rehearsals for the one-act play competition began September 22, 2025 in the Lincoln East Blackbox. The cast and tech crews began preparing early for their first competition on November 15 at Southwest. The one-act is a competitive play that runs at thirty minutes or under. This year, Lincoln East is performing “Peter and the Starcatcher”, an origin story to the beloved classic of Peter Pan.

“I rehearse every day [and] every other day. There’s a lot of work that goes into the accent and also rehearsing lines and memorizing,” senior Gavin Foust noted. “My role is Blackstache, he’s kind of the Captain Hook of Peter and the Starcatcher.”

Actors rehearse almost every day of the week for up to three hours. The show demands a lot of hard work and commitment from performers and the tech crew.

“One-act is the only show all year where we’re competing,” assistant stage manager Cinae Schneider said. “It’s my favorite show of the year because we spend so much time with this thirty minute show that it just becomes very special.”

Schneider also commented on many of the challenges that come with the one-act. Lighting design, which is Schneider’s main focus, can be a struggle due to scheduling times to try lighting on stage and communication with actors and directors. Another difficulty is creating a set that is mobile and transporting it to different schools for competitions.

“Where the challenge lies is mainly trying to figure out how to have the magic of a home show at a completely different school where you don’t understand how their system works,” Schneider said.

Lincoln East is hoping to win the state competition this year after coming in second in 2024. Anyone is welcome to watch their performance in the East auditorium on November 25.