When senior Amy Watson realized one of the stage lights was pointing to the side rather than the set, she dashed backstage to fix it. In that moment, she felt all the nervousness set in not wanting the show to get messed up.

The Theatre Collective performed “Amadeus” this year for UIL One Act Play competition, where they advanced to Bi-District at the Arlington PAC.

“Amadeus” is a dramatic comedy that explores themes of rivalry and jealousy of the main character, Salieri, to Mozart, who is depicted as being very talented and a genius.

Theatre director Madison Armstrong said the students grew emotionally throughout this production.

“I have seen my students grow in a lot of different ways on this production, from the basics of acting and the techniques that they use to their emotional vulnerability on stage,” Armstrong said.

The theatre magnet put time and effort into the competition, perfecting all of the small details such as how they say their lines and working on props.

“It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of long nights, a lot of work on the weekends,” Armstrong said. “About cleaning and each dissecting, each line delivery, working on all the tech elements to make sure that they are cohesive and work together, and bringing all that timing together as well. So a lot of hard work.”

Because they are a magnet, theater students don’t have an additional production class to prepare solely for UIL.

“In a dream scenario, we have a class period 90 minutes every day where we get to solely work on UIL,” Watson said.

Sophomore Clay Morgan, who plays Salieri, said playing the show in 40 minutes was difficult, along with all the memorization.

“We kept on having to change the script, and it was hard having to get used to the lines and the new scripts,” Morgan said.

Despite the challenges, the students were able to perform together as a unit.

“We were a team, and there weren’t a lot of fights or disagreements, like we were a team and we worked as a whole,” Watson said.