This past week Northtown theater had its annual student-directed one-acts. A one-act is a play that has only one act, compared to traditional plays that have several. But the Northtown theater students specifically chooses short plays so that they’ll be able to fit multiple. The night is nicknamed M.O.B.S. which stands for “Mini-off Broadway shows.”

This year is the 24th year that the Northtown theater department has put on one-acts and it is theater teacher and director, Randy Jacksons, second to last. Going into his final year of teaching this coming August, Jackson directed two of the six one-acts.

The one acts included a short Lin Manuel Miranda musical, a comedy, three dramas, and another musical all performed in the Black Box. Students and parents in the audience were surprised to see lights change in the room as many hadn’t known the capabilities of the multipurpose classroom.

The room grew hush for the first play, “The Actors Nightmare” directed by Mr. Jackson and starring show stopping senior John Kenney as “George” an accountant who suddenly finds himself backstage for a play he doesn’t know the lines to.

Other acts featured an arguing adoption agent and protentional father in Baby Steps written by Geoffrey Nauffts. A 14 minute Lin Manuel Miranda musical titled “21 Chump Street” where a boy falls in love with a cute girl- who’s actually an undercover cop. In the fourth act senior Abbi Parks displayed massive talent playing a quick to anger, Southern mother in “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls” written by Christopher Durang. “Lockdown” written by Douglas Craven followed shortly and told the story of eight students stuck in a classroom during a modern dilemma. The sixth act was a mini production of Broadway musical 6, a musical number re-imagining the six wives of Henry the Eighth as pop stars.

A very talented cast of directors, singers, actors, and crewmembers all showcased their talent on April 23rd and 22nd from talking out of trashcans, singing about your sketchy cousin, telling an adoption agent about your late husband, pretending to be hard of hearing, singing to a crowd of Henry the Eighth haters and even a Shakespearean soliloquy.