“If you are going to fail, fail spectacularly.”

Ten-time state qualifier and six-time state champion One Act Play director and judge Craig Hertel spent Saturday working with theater students planning to participate in One Act Play later on in the year.

Students worked from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. performing and working on various theater skills. They participated in improvisation, name games, and “the do’s and don’ts of theater” presentation.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” senior David Alcantar said. “I liked the things he showed us. Hopefully, this is going to help us through the year.”

At the beginning of the day, students engaged in name-games which, according to junior Andrea Garcia, turned into a full body workout.

“My whole body hurt the next day,” Garcia said. “When we did the first name game, we each had to do something to describe us. Some people were extra and did hard things.”

However, there were some scheduling conflicts. Seniors Madison Rowan, Taylor Lack and Kaiden Loep spent half the day taking the SAT and then attended the last half of the workshop.

“I was nervous we weren’t going to make it in time,” Rowan said. “I love OAP and I wanted to make sure we got back in time to show our theater skills.”

For theater director Jill Henson, the workshop’s main purpose was to have someone analyze the students’ skills and determine which show should be done for competition.

“I wanted a fresh pair of eyes on them,” Henson said. “I wanted him to help me choose which play would be the best for this group of kids.’

Overall, the day was spent expanding on theater skills and “auditioning” for the OAP show in the spring.

“I have been doing OAP for three years and we have never done something like this,” Loep said. “I am glad that we did something a little different and changed things up a bit.”