‘We are so honored’: McHi One-Act Play students first in 32 years to reach state finals

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McAllen High’s One-Act Play hasn’t reached the state level in 32 years, but with a captivating and powerful performance McHi students have catapulted the school into history with the chance to enshrine themselves into University Interscholastic League record books.

McHi Theatre Arts Director Jason Barrera has been in his position for 13 years and said his students’ achievement has left him speechless.

“It makes me think back on all the students and shows that have attempted this before, many of which are as deserving, but at the end of the day, someone’s got to advance, and luck is a big factor too,” Barrera said. “This group is very blessed to have this opportunity. They’re doing it for everyone else who paved the way and all those theater students within those 30 years who worked for it.”

The Thespian students are set to compete in the UIL 5A category on Tuesday in Austin. Barrera said the group has about 22 students.

The play they have spent countless hours on to master is “Unexpected Tenderness” by Israel Horovitz, a memory play that centers a dysfunctional Jewish family from Massachusetts controlled by a paranoid, jealous and abusive father and the son trying to reconcile the trauma.

Barrera said a beautiful symbol of the play is when the grandmother compares a lion roaring to the men in the family being aggressive, and how the grandson roars back as if he could fight back.

“She tells her grandson sometimes people have to imitate the things that scare them,” he said. “It puts this idea that, the aggression, the abusiveness, manipulation, is ultimately caused by fear. The goal is for this character to grow up and learn to not be like that, to raise children, particularly young men, who know how to still be strong in their own way but also tender and loving because abuse unfortunately happens from people who claim to love their victims.”

McHi senior Brennan Garcia plays Roddy Stern, the son in the play, who has been doing theater arts since middle school and plans to attend the University of Michigan to study acting.

“We are so honored, this has been a huge goal for all of us,” Garcia said about reaching state. “With this art form, it’s so subjective, so you never know how any particular year is going to play out in this contest … We were so excited to have that opportunity and to hear our names called. We couldn’t stop smiling, like feeling just tears, just pride, just being so happy to be able to represent South Texas and our school, our school district at the state meet, especially after it hasn’t been done in so long.”

Garcia said a big thing with the show was getting that distinct Boston dialect correct, and spent hours researching and workshopping to perfect it.

Giving about 30 seconds of his Boston accent, Garcia said he watched “Good Will Hunting” to nail the vowel placements and emulate it for the show.

McHi junior Ava Rodriguez plays Molly, the wife and mother in the play. Also performing in theater arts since middle school, she said participating in One-Act Play and traveling with her friends to compete is exhilarating.

“It’s so exciting and seeing the senior’s love, especially Brennan’s love for one act, how hungry he is for it, how bad he wanted it just makes me want to do anything for him,” she said. “Now I feel like I have this love for act one and I just want to keep doing it.”

Rodriguez said in preparation for her role as a mother, she looked to her mother and grandmother to get a better sense of what motherhood means.

“I didn’t really know how to go about it so I just asked my mom lots of questions and I observed her a lot,” she said. “I even observed my grandma and I feel like I still can’t even scratch the surface of being a mother.”

With the play revolving around the subject of abuse, Rodriguez also watched movies such as “Sleeping with the Enemy” to better play the role of an abused mother.

“Back in the 1950s, I think it was really tough for women to leave situations like these, which, come to find out, are actually very common,” she said. “So I think she’s a very brave mom who loves her children more than herself, and was able to break this cycle for her children, for herself.”

The students will have a UIL state send-off performance at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the McHi Auditorium, with a $5 donation encouraged.

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