Central High School's drama team hit the road Wednesday for the 52nd Annual State High School One-Act Play Festival with nerves, excitement and a lot of hope for a fourth straight year of superior ratings.

"I'm really excited," junior Erin Gaither said. "Last year was so much fun. We've put so much into this."

The team will join South Dakota's other top high school one-act-play actors in Aberdeen for the South Dakota High School Activities Association sponsored-event. The festival, which will be held Thursday, Jan. 31 through Saturday at the Johnson Fine Arts Center at Northern State University, serves as the state tournament for high school drama competition.

"We're a little nervous, a little excited," theater director Justin Speck said.

The students braved the cold Wednesday afternoon to load the bus, sliding dozens of large set props in the storage area underneath. Thirty-four students made the trip; 22 of them will perform "Evanflow," a medieval ballet composed, choreographed and written completely by the students.

"I'm nervous because we can't blame it on the author if they don't like it," Gaither said, joking.

The students who are not onstage will work behind the scenes to make sure the costumes, set and lighting is what it needs to be. Senior Aaron Stoneberger is a lighting designer and is making his third trip to state this year.

Some of the most stressful moments are at the beginning and the end, he said. Putting up the set, the performance and the "strike" - taking down the set - must be completed by each team within 45 minutes, a new rule that was implemented in the few years.

"We only had 47 seconds left last year," Stoneberger said, laughing.

They're not alone. This year, 44 teams are expected to turn out for the festival. Each qualifying school will perform their play for the judges and the public, attempting to achieve a "Superior" rating for the production and "Outstanding Performer" awards for individual performers and ensemble groups in the cast. The Central team has earned three "Superior" ratings in the past three years.

The competition is divided into three classes, based on school enrollment. Class "AA" plays advance directly to the state festival from their local schools, which is what the Central team did. Plays in the class "A" and class "B" competitions qualify for the state festival through competition at regional contests.

The festival will showcase performances by 14 class "A" schools presenting plays, which are generally serious, and 14 class "B" schools, which are humorous in nature. The plays presented by the 16 class "AA" schools can be either serious or humorous.

All performances at the festival are free to the public, and new performances will begin about every 50 minutes throughout each day of the festival.

The awards for the state festival will be presented late Saturday afternoon, about 5:30 CST p.m.

A complete listing of all performance times can be found on the South Dakota High School Activities Association's Web site at www.sdhsaa.com.

The Central team will go on stage at 6 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 31, which is good, Stonenberger said, because they won't have to be nervous all weekend.

Central assistant principal Steve Vernon doesn't think they have much to worry about.

"Watching them is like going to New York and watching Broadway: You'd never believe they're in high school," he said. "There's so much talent in this building."

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or Kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com

Editor's note: This story has been changed from its original publication to correctly reflect the identity of Central High School's assistant principal.