Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. Four lovely young women in skinny jeans and bright red lipstick stood or sat on the Nederland Middle Senior High School stage on Saturday night. They were all smoking and they all had an attitude.

They listed all the moments when a cigarette is what they needed: while on the phone, during a stressful moment, after a delicious dinner, with a drink—the list was endless. These girls were the cast of “10,000 Cigarettes,” one of the six one-act plays presented last weekend by the NMSHS theater.

The parts demanded that each actor maintain the look, the cold sophistication and sarcastic demeanor of the smoker who seems to be hovering above the rest of the world like the smoke that curls into the air from their cigarettes.

It doesn't end there. As the girls continue with their list it soon becomes unpleasant. The taste of nicotine soon becomes the stench of burned tobacco in their hair, the scratching of the throat and ultimately, the coughing, the hospital. Most of all, the denial.

Socia Morrish, Sasha Godsil, Emily Rumor, and Natasha Kinczel are phenomenal in their control, their precise timing and exquisite and vulnerable arrogance that slowly crumbles as the cigarettes take their toll.

Three people, two men and one woman, dressed in mostly black, take the stage and point guns at each other. This is “The Tarantino Variation.” No one knows why they want to shoot each other; all we know is that it is a Mexican standoff. The dialogue goes like this:

"You're gonna have to pry this gun out of my cold dead hand.”

“That can be arranged .”

“Do it and I shoot you .”

“Not before I shoot this guy.”

“You shoot, then I shoot .”

“Your funeral.”

“Let's go.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

“Fine, this is a little awkward."

The shooters change direction, change emotions, pull out another gun, and finally, decide to go out and get something to eat. The cast goes through myriad emotions. Ben Rubio is mostly annoyed, slightly confused. Hattie Bakke is furious and volatile, and Baeli Wein stands his ground, refusing to relent his position. It is a darkly funny play that showcases these young thespians’ skills with jackhammer dialogue.

“The Bully Pulpit” is the story of a manipulative teen who is determined to win a school election by intimidating her classmates. Jamie Lammers plays the one student who sees through the bully's posturing. Lammers is a natural actor who already has a stage presence and ease with his lines.

On Friday night, the Introduction to Theater class performed “Second Class.” The other two one-acts performed on Friday were “The Asylum” and “Don't Fear the Reaper.”

Many members of the cast are long-time thespians in the NMSHS Theater Department and some of them were newcomers to the stage, but from the first day of rehearsal to the opening of the curtain, they have fine-tuned their lines, their personas and their desire to perform in front of an audience.

Many of them will begin rehearsal next year for the spring musical production.