A new year. A new direction. Last year was the first time the one-act actors and actresses had competed under the direction of Mr. Hertel and Mrs. Toomer, yet their play still managed to make it all the way to region. Violet Sharp, this year’s one-act play, moves on to Bi-District this Saturday where they will be competing at noon in Krum high school for another chance to compete at region.

“Last year was the first year for us [Mr. Hertel and Mrs. Toomer] to go all the way to region,” Toomer said. “I think we had a lot of kids buy into that so I think this year the cast and crew have really taken ownership of this play. They came up with ideas and really did their homework for themselves.”

After the hype of last year’s success, it hasn’t been a struggle to have all the students come together this time of year. Even though it requires hard work, Mrs. Toomer has done her best to keep the practices light and fun.

“I had them, for example, run it as country western, run it as a musical, run it as sesame street characters,” Toomer said. “Just keeping it fresh each time we rehearse so that they don’t get bored, and it doesn’t get stale.”

Actress Molly Livingston appreciated Toomer’s idea of keeping the situation “fun”.

“I really love Toomer and Hertel,” Livingston said. “They wanted us to deviate from our normal patterns of talking, so Mrs.Toomer had us do each of our different scenes as if we were in a different movie genre. It really kept us on our toes.”

After one act took the first place title at last week’s competition, they are going into bi-district with high hopes.

“Fingers are crossed, and I knock on wood because I don’t like to jinx things,” Toomer said. “But I hope we do really well. They’ve changed the contest where now three schools advance from every level of contest, so our odds are really good out of six schools. There is a 50-50 chance we will advance.”

Coincidentally, Toomer learned some of her best teaching techniques from Hertel.

“I did one act play all four years of high school, and Mr. Hertel was actually my teacher,” Toomer said. “He got me interested in theatre, and I did it in college and in community theatre, so when there was an opening in the theatre department I thought ‘Oh yeah. That’s what I want to do.’”

According to Texas Theatre Adjudicators and Officials, Hertel has directed over 25 one-act plays and holds six state championships. Hertel was the director of last year’s play, but he has handed the reins over to Toomer.

“I’m not the official director this year,” Hertel said. “I have been teaching for a long time and she [Toomer] has more energy than I do. But I don’t think I will ever be completely done with One Act.”

With the help of Toomer and Hertle, Livingston and senior Tad Smith were awarded best actor and best actress at the district competition.

“We took best actor and best actress, which to have that is really rare,” Toomer said. “So that is a great achievement for Argyle.”

Toomer is hopeful for what the theatre department can achieve in upcoming years.

“If you can keep it interesting and keep it fun and get enthusiasm built,” Toomer said, “then the program will follow and it will grow.”