Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and God- topics seldom uttered in public schools.  Lance De Roos, English dept., decided to portray these controversial topics in this year’s One Act play.  De roos adapted “Origins,” Lincoln’s entry in the fourth annual State One Act Festival, from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”

De Roos found the play challenging to write due to the controversial subject matter; “Paradise Lost” describes the creation of Heaven, Hell, Earth, and Man.  As a result, adapting the controversial subject matter for the high school scene. 

De Roos was “Trying to be sensitive to amore diverse audience,” he said.

To make the play more neutral De Roos changed ‘Satan’ to ‘The Divider’ and ‘Adam and Eve’ to ‘Man and Woman.’

            Another challenge De Roos faced was fitting such heavy content into a short time period.  At the One Act Festival schools have 45 minutes to set up and perform each play.

            The time constraint ended up working well for the play.  The topic has the potential to be long and wordy, but with the limited time the audience’s attention was held and it forced the cast to be creative and succinct with concepts.

            The play was separated into three parts:  the chorus, the dancers and the acting.  The chorus, with the questioner and intellect, functioned to inspire the audience to think about the deep questions that were then portrayed by the acting.  The dancers signified phase changes.

            At first, the dancers were confusing.  However, as the play went on, their purpose became clearer and they helped the play flow.

            The lighting and costumes helped bring this age old tale to life.  The different colored lights differentiated between The Divider’s world and Earth.  The costumes, especially the Divider’s ragged wings and heavy boots, were elaborate and portrayed the characters well.  Combined, the lighting and costumes, assured even a high school audience could comprehend the scene. 

            The tech crew also did a spectacular job with the music; instruments, like the maracas, were untraditional and added suspense the climatic ending.  The welded structures proved to be dramatic and versatile.  They went along well with the mood of the play.  Very dynamic props, they were great for the limited time frame.

            “Origins” was easy to follow and moved along at a pace that kept it exciting.  It ended leaving the viewers with much to think about.  The play did a fantastic job of taking an age-old story and transforming it into a short thoughtful one act.  The emotional acting, creative dancers and thought-provoking chorus worked together to explain the complex tale of creation to a tough audience.