The Dark Road

Zeke's Advanced Theatre  competed in the FWISD UIL One Act Play. There were A TON of after school practices, which ran from 4:30-6:00 and sometimes 6:30, plus many Saturdays.

 The play was called The Dark Road. It was a very dark, heavy show set during World War II. It is the story of two German sisters caught up in the events of WWII. One chooses evil, the other good. We learn the dark road to evil is not a short, immediate journey. It is one step at a time: one decision to ignore your conscience after another, until you believe that good is evil and evil is good.  The Dark Road is a true story of a female guard who is tried and convicted of war crimes. Pretty heavy stuff. 

These middle schoolers pulled it off magnificently.

As they say in the theatre, there are no small parts, just small actors. Zekers had just a few lines this time around, but he performed them superbly. He was the intern who was learning about the heinous treatment of Jewish prisoners in the infirmary.

 He begins unwrapping the wound and asking questions.

 We see the wound is gruesome.

 The doctor explains that they would inject the wounds with shards of glass and cow dung to see how the body would react.

 The intern felt the patient was burning up, and learned her temperature was 106.

 He showed some empathy, but the patient collapsed and died. 

He and the doctor then nonchalantly decided to go grab some lunch and left the deceased lying on the ground.

 The show ended with the evil sister being hung for war crimes.

The observant intern.

 We're so proud of our Zekers!

 They performed the show at ALA for the parents, then again at University Interscholastic League. UIL exists to provide educational extracurricular academic, athletic, and music contests. [Sidenote: For all the non-Texan readers, the UIL was created by the University of Texas at Austin in 1910 and has grown into the largest inter-school organization of its kind in the world.]  Like they say, everything's bigger in Texas. ;)

The first week there were 6 teams competing on Friday and 6 teams on Saturday. The top 3 were chosen each day to advance to finals the following Saturday. ALA earned 2nd, solidifying their spot in finals. At finals, they placed 2nd overall! So glad all that hard work paid off!

 I'm very proud of my Zekers. He sacrificed scouting trips and Stage Right lock-ins and lots of free time. What a valuable lesson to learn that hard work and perseverance is rewarded.