With snow falling and temperatures dropping, students may find themselves forced to stay inside and face boredom. This week, Niles North students have an opportunity to be thoroughly entertained by the numerous student directed plays that will be presented in the Festival of One Act Plays.

The Festival of One Act Plays are presented Dec. 18 through Dec. 20 in the Drama Performance Center. Showtimes are at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Each presentation shows a variety of plays different from the next. There is a free community performance on Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 10 a.m..

The Festival of One Act Plays schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, December 18 at 10 a.m.:

• “Why the Sea Is Salty” a Korean folktale – Directed by Joanna Vaklin, cast: Ena Allahverdy, Joe Isip, Julia Melnick and Chris Nguyen

• “The Moon Please” by Diana Son – Directed by Sabina Dzelilovic, cast: Joe Isip and Alex Monte

• “Doggy Poo” by Jung-Seang Kwon (translated from Korean by John O’Donnell) – Directed by Nathan Selinger, cast: Eric Simon, Uche Nwansi, Kayla Chinitz, Anaje Silva, Geoff Schmelzer and Mikki Stotter

• “R.A.W. (‘Cause I’m a Woman)” by Diana Son – Directed by Teresa Franks, cast: Gabrielle Dizon, Nina Rickett-Green, Carissa Yau and Kati Yau

Wednesday, December 18 at 4 p.m.:

• “Sure Thing” by David Ives – Directed by Lauryn Schmelzer, cast: Dani Brown, Morgan Conneely and Chris Nguyen

• “Blue Skies” by Marvin L. Cotlar – Directed by Samuel Rosenfeld, cast: Natalie Aleman and Hannah Doherty

• “Loyalties” by Murphy Guyer – Directed by Robin Wallace, cast: Casey Behrens, Andrey Poloz, Margaret Selinger and Spencer Soglin

• “Glory in the Flower” by William Inge – Directed by Jaquelyn Shannon, cast: Hunza Abbasi, Sean Luo, Sara Morrison, Andrey Poloz, Leah Shain, Emma Vaughan and Glenn Weissman

• “Family 2.0” by Walter Wykes – Directed by Ryan Loach, cast: Aaron Niederman, Kyra Sarris, Nathaniel Schetter, Violette Shearer and Spencer Soglin

Wednesday, December 18 at 7 p.m.:

• “Why the Sea is Salty”

• “The Moon Please”

• “Doggy Poo”

• “R.A.W. (‘Cause I’m a Woman)”

• “Snows of Kiliminjaro” (adapted from the short story by Ernest Hemingway) – Directed by Amy Hagedorn, cast: Heeah Banerjee, Jacob Bernstein, Nina Codell and Geoffrey Schmelzer

Thursday, December 19 at 4 p.m.:

• “Tainted Love” by Walter Wykes – Directed by Hannah Sahyouni, cast: Hannah Brown, Phil Klafta and Martin Wiviott

• “Hello, Out There” by William Saroyan – Directed by Noah Zeidman, cast: Molly Bowes, Jessica Fucik, Raiq Hussain and Tommy Montgomery

• “Emotional Baggage” by Nina Sheingold – Directed by Camille Paskind, cast: Sally Alvarado, Katie Bean, Zain Dababneh, Simon Gebremedhin, Miriam Moss and Martin Wiviott

• “Armed Robbery for Dummies” by Paul R. Roman – Directed by Evan Sturt, cast: David Gilbert, Sean Lou, Josh Sahadeo and Stacy Herman

• “Intermission” by Daniel Meltzer – Directed by Madeline Martin, cast: Jacob Bernstein, Abby Bettenhausen, Ingeobrg Halseth, Raiq Hussain, Martina Scofano and Elizabeth Soglin

• “Postcards” by James Prideaux – Directed by Erin Rourke, cast: Rachel Kaufman and Nathaniel Schetter

Thursday, December 19 at 7 p.m.:

• “Sure Thing”

• “Blue Skies”

• “Loyalties”

• “Glory in the Flower”

• “Family 2.0”

Friday, December 20 at 4 p.m.:

• “Why the Sea Is Salty”

• “The Moon Please”

• “Doggy Poo”

• “R.A.W. (‘Cause I’m a Woman)”

• “Snows of Kiliminjaro”

Friday, December 20 at 7 p.m.:

• “Tainted Love”

• “Hello, Out There”

• “Emotional Baggage”

• “Armed Robbery for Dummies”

• “Intermission”

• “Postcards”

Many students have taken advantage of this great opportunity to display talent in the school and get other students, normally not involved in theater, involved.

“Participating in the One Acts has been a great experience. I learned a lot from Lauryn, our director, as well as from the other actors in my play,” said sophomore Dani Brown, who is acting in “Sure Thing”, a love story with an unexpected twist. “It’s been really fun working on the show, and it has been a great opportunity to get a ton of people involved in theatre.”

“This was my very first theatre experience at Niles North. Students, faculty, and whoever should see these One Act Plays because all of them are very suspenseful,” said Junior Molly Bowes, who plays the vengeful wife in “Hello Out There”.

Upperclassmen have also expressed gratitude for their opportunity to participate in and direct a play.

“One thing that was relatively new for me during this show was the maturity of the content. Being in this play allowed me to grow as an actress and really empathize with these women. These women are directly addressing these stereotypes and it is nice to be able to draw attention to these stereotypes and break them down,” said Junior Carissa Yau, an actress in one of the plays that focuses on this year’s “Coming Together in Skokie” spotlight on Korean culture, “R.A.W (‘Cause I’m a Woman)”.

“It’s amazing to have something you see in your mind come to life on stage exactly the way you wanted. It was eye opening for me to see how prepared you have to be in order for the rehearsal to be successful. It was a really fun and new experience I’m very grateful to have had,” said junior and director of “Tainted Love”, Hannah Sahyouni.

Niles North is filled with an overwhelming amount of talented students. Going out to see one of these plays directed by creative upperclassmen is one of the few opportunities we have to witness and observe the talent in our school.

Go Vikings!