One Act to Make Its First State Appearance Since 2023
Cast members learn valuable lessons in their production of The Women of Lockerbie
The illumination from a single, blue-tinted spotlight and the quiet rustle of a crowd awaiting their chance to applaud is how the Buffalo High School One Act concluded their performance at the 5AA Section competition earlier today. This performance earned them First Place at Sections and will advance them to the MSHSL State One Act Festival for the first time since 2023.
The State Festival will be held on Thursday, February 5 & 6, at the O’Shaughnessy Auditorium at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.
Unlike most theater productions, One Act is competitive. Teams must compete in a sub-section tournament where the top two from each sub-section go to sections, and from there, one production from each section moves on to the State Festival. Participants must also follow a strict set of rules, with some of the big ones being that the cast and crew of a show can be no larger than twenty, when deconstructed, a team’s set must fit into a ten-foot by ten-foot frame, and each show must not be longer than thirty-five minutes. If a team breaks these rules or any others, they are automatically disqualified. These strict guidelines can put excess pressure on cast and crew members, but it hasn’t stopped the cast of BHS’s The Women of Lockerbie from excelling at their craft.
Based on true events, The Women of Lockerbie follows American couple Bill and Madeline Livingston (portrayed by Lucas Louwagie ‘26 and Lily Kinches ‘27) along with the townspeople of Lockerbie, Scotland, through the winding road of grief after the bombing of Pan American Flight 103 heading from London to New York City, killing a total of 270 people on December 21, 1988 including thirty-five Syracuse University students and eleven residents of Lockerbie. It was the deadliest terror attack on American citizens until the attacks on September 11, 2001. Madeline Livingston is desperate to find any remnants of her son, Adam Alexander Livingston (portrayed by Vincent Johnson ‘26), who was killed in the crash, and while roaming the hills of Lockerbie, Scotland, she finds herself among the women in Lockerbie, who are fighting against the U.S. government to reclaim and clean the clothing remnants of the victims. Madeline and her husband find some solace in the effort these women are making to reclaim their lives from the tragedy that occurred in Lockerbie. The show dives deeply into the ideas that not every choice is one’s own; some may even be controlled by a higher power, and that in every situation, there is an opportunity for love to triumph over hate.
