The annual Wilson “One Acts” once again delighted students as the hilarious, and somewhat surprising, student-written, acted, directed, and produced plays. Every winter, the One Acts bring Wilson students together to create their own plays. The first round of auditions were held in January, when actors choose what plays they want to try out for, and callbacks were the following day. New actors are  encouraged to join, but even for experienced actors, the process can be described as “kind of scary at first,” said freshman Augusten Touhey.

The plays are expertly cast by student directors. “Choosing actors is really tough, with student plays like these, a lot of people try out, even people who don’t normally do theater. There are a lot of surprises and you don’t really know what you are looking for until the actors come in,” junior Gabby Anifantis, director of “Turpin Hero” said.

Unsurprisingly, One Acts attracted large crowds each night. Insiders are told to arrive early to get good seats, advice that appeared to be necessary Saturday night. At around 7 p.m., it was announced that tickets were sold out, even while many were still in line. Audience members at the end of the line, which stretched down the ramps to the choir room, had to stand on the backs of the risers. The black box theater was packed once the show finally started.

There were 11 shows total; six in the first act, and five after a brief intermission. Each show brought its own spunk, individual story, and unique humor. The actors, writers, and directors put together a consistent show with no obvious outliers. However, there were some plays that stood out for the combination of witty jokes, well written scripts, and perfect acting.

“Elf on the Shelf” immediately stood out; it was written by Caleb Balmoris, and directed by Balmoris, Jackson Fox-Bland, and Langley Custer. Each actor did a wonderful job of embodying their character, and the story was wrapped up with a hilarious surprise ending.

The writing and the realistic acting in “Book Club,” written by Claire Lewis, was perfectly casted and didn’t fail to make the audience laugh. The plays “Turpin Hero,” “Wegmans,” and “Basketball” were about as different from each other as you could imagine, but turned out to be clear crowd favorites.

The acting of certain individuals is what really made the shows indescribably funny, yet interesting. Some of the star actors of the night proved to be Sammy Solomon in “Book Club,” who brought the second act to a wonderful start, Elliott Diner, who perfectly embodied the role of Dickie Turpin in “Turpin Hero,” and Sasha Afonsky and Dean Gwadz’s random but realistic conversations could go on for hours still generating laughs.

Anna Wilson of “More Than One Act” also did a very good job at creating a whole different kind of character. Overall, the entire cast of the final, energetic play “Basketball,” written and directed by Joey Schulman and Sophie Thurshwell, had no weak members and worked perfectly together with a hilariously written script to deliver a crowd favorite of the night.

The Wilson One Acts held to the standards of being randomly witty and is an event one would not want to miss.