The theater department had their OAP auditions for their 2021 play House Full of Letters scheduled for the Thursday before school let out for the holidays, but due to a wide outspread of COVID-19 in the school, Superintendent Lacy Freeman decided to close down before tryouts could happen. That meant that directors Melonie Menefee and Katie Villarreal had to scramble to put a new plan into place before the end of the day.

“We decided the best option was to set up a Flipgrid page for the theatre students to be able to record and upload their auditions,” Villarreal said. “We set a deadline, and once that time was reached, we closed the page and reviewed all of the auditions.”

There were a few technical difficulties with uploads, which Menefee handled remotely. She and Villarreal viewed the auditions together and discussed while making casting decisions.

“I was kind of relieved after hearing the auditions were going to be online so I didn’t have to actually stand in front of anyone,” freshman Amy Sanchez said. “I’m really excited for this year. I just hope we get to do it.”

The directors also chose to double cast the entire play to prepare for the possibility of losing cast members to quarantining and COVID-19. Students being out had already made fall rehearsals difficult at times.

“It has been a bumpy road these past few months for the theater department, ” junior Ashley White said. “First our Fine Arts Christmas program was moved to a virtual platform, then cancelled; we were unable to do a musical this year because we were worried we would spend all that time and money and get cancelled. I’m really hoping COVID doesn’t take this away from us, too.”

UIL announced a decision just this week that all performers must wear masks during the performances, and are also cutting the number of qualifiers from some levels of the contest.

“It’s going to really suck having to wear masks the whole time, while we’re trying to act and use our facial expressions,” junior Omar Almedia said. “But if it means we get to compete then I’m all for it.”

For now, though, the show is moving forward.

“We are working hard in class and out of class to get things moving,” Menefee said. “It is harder and things move more slowly with the double-casting, but we will just do the best we can and keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get cancelled completely like we did last year.”