Elizabeth Rex, the first Hebron One Act Play to make it to Regionals in the competition, will perform at Regionals on April 7.

Elizabeth Rex has advanced through the Zone, District, Bi-District, and Area levels of the competition. If the cast and crew place in the Regional level, they will advance to the State competition.

“I have never been with a group of people that [wanted] to succeed this badly,” senior Sean Ghedi said. “Every actor on this team has a hunger and passion that I haven’t seen in a One Act Play company before.”

Elizabeth Rex is about a meeting between William Shakespeare, his crew of actors and Queen Elizabeth on the night her lover is to be executed. Elizabeth Rex mixes Shakespeare with modern day themes and issues that are currently common in society.

“I believe our show is different because it attacks problems that we are facing right now in society,” senior AJ Abdullah said. “There have been many conversations brought up about gender identity and I think our show helps bring it to light as well as express how everyone is dealing with something in their own way.”

The cast, crew, and directors have been working on this show since January. The actors began by doing background research about the time period, breaking up the play into sections, assigning motives to each character and doing extensive character backgrounds. The tech crew designed, cut and mixed sounds and lights to get the effect they wanted.

“All the elements of the show are extremely important,” tech director Liz Shurr said. “The tech elements provide another way of telling the story [through] lighting, sound, set, and costume.”

Having advanced this far, the cast and crew are hoping to go to state.

“This show is not a comedy, a tragedy, a drama, or any other stereotypical genre,” Ghedi said. “It’s everything. The audience laughs, cries and walks out of that auditorium feeling enlightened by the story that we tell.”