Clinton’s Stafford, Hinds students win at One-Act Play Festival

Pictured are Director of Theatre Alison Stafford (front) and (back) Hinds students Vance Woodall of Brandon, Mack Talley of Florence and Taylor Harris of Pearl.

Three Hinds students and Hinds Director of Theatre Alison Stafford of Clinton recently competed with Pearl Community Theatre at the annual Mississippi Theatre Association (MTA) One-Act Play Festival, winning first place. Stafford and the students – Taylor Harris of Pearl, Vance Woodall of Brandon and Mack Talley of Florence – will go on to compete with Pearl Community Theatre at the annual Southeastern Theatre Conference in Baltimore.

Additionally, Stafford won Outstanding Achievement in Acting, the group won Best Ensemble in Acting and Best Scenic Design, and Harris and Woodall won Best Onstage Chemistry. All three students are theatre majors and members of the Lendon Players.

Their winning one-act is a bittersweet story called “The Act of Living” by Robert Scott. The story centers around Tom and Evelyn, who met by chance one day in London as children during WWII. They eventually fell in love, married and had children and grandchildren. As an old man, Tom looks back across the years to relive their time together just after Evelyn passed away.

Both Stafford and Harris play the character of Evelyn at different ages; Woodall and Talley play Tom at different ages.

“We have child actors [from Pearl Community Theatre] playing the characters when they first meet and a couple more actors to play those same characters at other stages in their lives. As this show features British characters and is set in London, England, we are all having to perform with British accents,” Stafford said.

This is Stafford’s third time competing over the years.