Georgia Military College Preparatory School (GMC Prep) achieved another championship win at this year’s Region 5A Division II One Act competition on Nov. 1 with its performance of Once on This Island, The Musical.
One-act competition has regional and state championships. Schools perform a play or musical no longer than 55 minutes from set-up to clear stage. Judges watch and score each school based on a rubric with up to 100 points available to be scored. There are awards for first place, runner-up, best actor, and best actress. Then, each school has all-star awards for their individual performances.
“It’s an intense competition,” said Mark Weaver, director. “This is our 10th region championship, and we are hoping to achieve our seventh state championship.”
GMC Prep hosted and participated in the competition at their new facility the NewDay USA Center for Leadership. GMC Prep has been hosting the one-act competition for its region since 2016-17 but this was the first time the school was able to host it within its own facility.
“We didn’t have a space large enough prior to the opening of the NewDay USA Center for Leadership,” said Weaver. “With the space we have now, we can host any type of performance and accommodate the audience. Due to that, we are hosting the 7A state championship on Nov. 11 for one act, which is the largest school.”
According to Weaver, Once on This Island, The Musical was the first show within the new facility before the competition. Between the three performances, about 1,800 people came to watch.
“This was our largest turnout for a home show,” said Weaver. “We are so grateful to all audience members who expressed how impressed they were, not only with the facility but with how our cast and crew used it to its full potential.”
With about 80 actors and crew members, Weaver stated GMC Prep was the largest performing school at the regional competition. Co-director and choreographer Jenny Morris explained that they always choose a performance that can accommodate a large number of students, due to the high amount of interest in one act. According to Morris, Once on This Island, The Musical is a difficult performance with a heartwrenching story that GMC Prep worked strenuously to learn and perform perfectly.
“The musical has a very meaty storyline with lots of moments for our actors to really challenge themselves,” said Morris. “We are used to doing big musical comedies but this musical has a slightly sadder touch, so we were excited to try something new within our new space.”
Morris describes the story as being like that of Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
“It takes place on an island similar to Haiti and revolves around the love story between a poor girl who rescues and falls in love with a rich boy. She prays to the gods to help her romance and basically sells her soul to the devil through this,” said Weaver. “It’s a beautiful story of love and an awesome adventure on an island that does have a sort of sad ending.”
GMC Prep does not limit the number of students who can participate in a show and blocks out each show to ensure all students have involvement from start to finish. According to Weaver, the process begins with choreography and teaching the songs. Then, in small groups, they work with students on each scene.
“We roughly block the show and continue to refine it through small parts until the show can flow,” said Morris. Weaver added, “In high school, it’s about trying something that you have never done before so we don’t turn away students and we take it step-by-step, so they are both learning and improving during the process.”
At the region championship, Once on This Island, The Musical took home first place with three scores of 100, 99, and 99 on each of the rubrics. For All-Star Awards, Avi Villarreal and Nikki Knight were awarded All-Star Cast, Shawn Boyce was awarded Best Supporting Actor, Abigail Johnson was awarded Best Supporting Actress, William Steinfeld was awarded Best Actor, and Alexis Waldroup was awarded Best Actress.
“We are so proud of our students for their hard work and continuous work to refine for the state championship,” said Morris. Weaver added, “We tell our students each time that as long as they give 100 percent then placement doesn’t matter. As long as we see them do their best, we are proud of them.”
GMC Prep has made small changes based on the judge's comments to prepare for the state championship on Nov. 18 at Denmark High School in Alpharetta.
“Our goal is to walk into state with a 100 on the rubric if they grade us,” said Morris. Weaver added, “We are so proud of our students. They have been working so hard and did so wonderfully in front of the audience and incredibly in front of the judges. It’s not easy to achieve and we are extremely proud of all of their efforts and their performance.”