Sophomore lead cast member Lilly Strathman said she was thrilled that theater’s production of “The Amish Project” received first place at the Winter One Act competition Jan. 22 at Edina High School.

“I mean we got first place, so that was a cool experience because last year we didn’t move on, but this year we did,” Strathman said. “I think it’s a very important show, and it feels good to be bringing this subject and topic to a wider variety of an audience.”

According to junior set crew member Mitchell VonEschen, the judges responded very well to the performance.

“One of the three judges gave us perfect scores, and the other two gave us almost perfect scores,” VonEschen said.

Theater director Jodi Hatzenbeller said it is nice to be acknowledged for the work the cast and crew has put into the show.

“It’s very exciting to be recognized for the hard work we’ve done and the artistic decisions that we’ve made with this particular show,” Hatzenbeller said. “It’s always great just to perform, because we can see other schools and celebrate what they’re doing as well.”

Strathman said the passion and expressiveness in “The Amish Project” performances contributed to the show being so captivating to the audiences and judges.

“What put this show apart from other shows is the level of emotion that is in it. It’s obviously not an easy show to watch or do … but there is so much emotion—there are moments of levity, there are moments of sadness, and disgust and anger.”

According to Strathman, the theater program will continue to rehearse the show this week and hopes to approach the show with renewed excitement. 

“We have rehearsal next week and during that we have to memorize our lines again,” Strathman said. “And since we’ve done the show many times, it kind of starts to get boring every once in a while, so we’re going to try to bring it back with fresh energy and get a new start.”

Hatzenbeller said the theater company received written feedback from the judges after their performance at the competition.

“Each of the three judges gives us written feedback that we read on the way back from the competition, and we are going to review (this) as we prep for going into finals this weekend,” Hatzenbeller said.

According to Hatzenbeller, the Park theater program will be competing against five other schools at the Winter One Act semi-finals at 9 a.m. Feb. 2 at the Academy of the Holy Angels.