Lights, Camera, Action! The Holdrege One Act is coming up and it’s something you don’t want to miss. With the new director, Candice Dollar, be watching for a well thought out play.

Coming to the Tassel on November 30th is The Insanity of Mary Girard, the real-life story of a Philadelphia woman who spent the last 25 years of her life in a mental institution. Mary Girard was committed to an asylum. After Mary became pregnant by another man, her husband took swift and immediate action. He had her declared legally insane. “The play examines injustices in the way our society views and treats mental-illness, as well as depicting our nation’s history of abusing women and the mentally-ill,” says Dollar. Their first and only competition is on November 13th in North Platte. 

Mrs. Dollar teaches 12th grade English here at Holdrege and is a very passionate person. She got to decide on the play and chose it because, “I had somebody ask me why I chose such a dark/heavy play during a time when there is so much darkness/heaviness in the world. My response? Because hiding from the dark/heavy topics does not make them go away. Because pretending that everything is rainbows and unicorns does not make it so.  All of us are probably struggling with mental health in one way or another, or we have at one time. At the very least, all of us have struggles and challenges. What we are doing is important. It matters. We are diving into the difficult stuff and we are making art from it,” said Dollar. 

Having such a deep play with symbolism requires very talented actors “The lead role of “Mary Girard” is a huge speaking part. There are several monologues to memorize and there is great psychological depth to her character. Ella Roach has really stepped up and is tackling the challenge of this role beautifully,” says Dollar. Not only One Act requires actors but you never really think of the people behind stage like who does the lights? Who moves all of the scenery? Most of the time they go unnoticed. “Definitely the extras, understudies, stage crew and technical crew. They are crucial to the production, but nobody ever sees how hard they work behind the scenes. These are students who are invested in the production team and show, but who are perfectly content with not being in the spotlight. I love and appreciate that,” said Dollar. 

Be sure to get your tickets early to ensure your spot for this exciting play on November 30th at The Tassel.