Cast & crew to perform ‘Happy Daze’
By Elle Falk
After a disappointing second place finish at last year’s district competition, the 2023 One Act season has arrived. This year Sacred Heart is performing “Happy Daze,” a comedy about a boy named JT Springer who feels he was born in the wrong generation. JT can’t seem to find his place, and when he sees what it was like in the 1950’s he believes he would be happier back then.
The One Act team lost five senior actors and seven senior crew members, but a total of eight freshmen have committed to participate this season. Sophomore Parker Hoffman plays the lead role of JT, senior Leila Frederick plays his mom (Ann) and junior Patrick Froeschl plays his dad (Julian.) Coaches Stephenie Bippes and Pam Smith chose this play because of the mix between comedy and seriousness, and they thought the actors would enjoy it. “The writing is so clever; it has the perfect amount of weirdness in it,” Bippes said.
Although the coaches, performers and crew enjoy winning, they feel that winning isn’t what is always the most important. The coaches ultimately hope to help the students develop a passion for acting and theater.
Bippes is on her 9th year coaching One Act and she loves it because you get to dive into the theater world with costumes, sets, makeup and characters. In all her years of coaching, one of her favorite plays was “April Fish” because she loved working with her son, but she also loved last year’s play, “Leaving Iowa.”
“Both of these plays had amazing actors that made the whole season memorable,” Bippes said. “They may have not won state, but they both won in my eyes; that’s how good I felt they were.”
The first performance this year will be in Fairbury on November 11. They will perform this play for the local community at their dessert theater on November 26. Pioneer Conference One Act will be on November 15, and districts are yet to be determined.
