The Balkan Women follows a mother and daughter in a Serbian camp during the Yugoslav wars and is the choice for this year’s One Act Play. The cast and crew will compete in the district contest on March 9.

The main cast consists of senior Waylon Johnson as Jovan Vlaco, sophomore Emma Cocking as Samira Jusic, senior Omar Almeida as Colonel Branislav Herak, sophomore Nicollette Arabie as Jela Kaljanao and senior Ashley White as Amira Jusic.

“I’m playing Samira, a teenager with her mom in the camp,” Cocking said. “I’m very grateful for this role. I think I’ll do a good job.”

Auditions were held in December right before Christmas break.

“I tried out for Amina,” Arabie said. “I got Jela though, and I’m not sad about it. She’s a very fun character.”

The cast has been working on building their characters and memorizing lines.

“I’m already really invested in the story,” Arabie said. “It’s going to be a fun year.”

According to the directors, the ensemble will play a big role towards building of the play. There are two sets of choruses who recite some lines and whose movement is essential to the play.

“Being in the ensemble is an interesting part to play,” junior Lindsey Hardin said. “The movement will be very important.”

The crew members, too, have been working hard behind the scenes.

“With everything that’s in the play, there’s going to be a lot more sound cues,” sophomore Esmeralda Gonzalez said. “I love doing sound. I can’t wait.”

Set work so far has involved creating barbed wire out of string, glue and paint and working on wraps for some of the set pieces.

“I think we can do even better than we did last year,” senior John Cocking said. “Everyone is ready to dive in and put all we have into it.”