Drama students at Suffolk high schools have spent countless hours preparing for this Saturday’s VHSL Theater Festival.

The one-act play competition will be held Saturday at King’s Fork High School. It includes at least 10 different schools, according to Sara Sims, drama teacher at Lakeland High School. The district competition will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.

“They enjoy going and getting to meet other performers,” Sims said. “There is so much you can learn by watching what other people do.”

Each school has 30 minutes to perform its play, five minutes to set up and five minutes to take down. Teams that go over the allotted time will be disqualified.

The student teams will be judged for their performance according to their acting techniques, their ability to execute direction on stage and their ability to work as a team. The groups will also be judged by their ability to deliver dialogue and stay in character.

Lakeland High School is performing Alice Gerstenburg’s “He Said, She Said.” Sims describes the play as a turn-of-the-century piece with comedic wit. Her students will be dressed in period attire, including petticoats and big coats.

Nansemond River High School will perform “Shakespeare Abridged,” which was described by drama teacher Joleen Neighbours as “a satirical and comedic look at all of Shakespeare’s plays.”

Neighbours explained that the student actors will switch among musical styles during the performance, including rap and reggae.

Kings Fork High School will be performing “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” according to Randy Jessee, activities director.

Actors at all three of the Suffolk high schools competing on Saturday have performed their pieces before.

“It lets kids get on stage before we compete to get the jitters out,” said Sims.

To prepare for the competition performance, Sims taught her Lakeland High School students about turn-of-the-century etiquette and posture.

The Lakeland High School actors performed last night at 6:30 p.m. and their understudies performed at 7:30 p.m. The actors will be performing again tonight at 6:30 and 7:30. The price of admission for this event will be a canned food item that the school will donate to the local food bank.

In preparation for Saturday’s performance, Nansemond River High School student actors performed yesterday and will continue performing today for the school’s English classes. As Neighbours explained, the performance provides a means through which English teachers can present Shakespeare in a different context.

Nansemond River High School drama students also held a special performance for parents last night at 7 p.m.

Kings Fork High School drama students performed last night for parents to prepare for Saturday’s performance. The price of admission was a suggested donation of $5.

“It is a good experience and everyone just has a good time and a lot of fun,” Sims said.