Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.   The Nederland Middle Senior High School Fall Plays amused, surprised, and amazed Friday and Saturday night’s audiences as the rather unusual plots and cast of characters defied normal endings.

Tales of teens who are not who they appear to be; neighbors who are definitely not normal; places that don’t make any sense, and tests that are agonizingly untakeable.

The Ned Thespians became their parts, playing their roles with realistic discipline, straight-faced as their world unraveled around them. They owned the weirdness; they took charge of their characters, however far from reality they were.

In “The New Margo”, Maeve Anderson plays Delta, a girl who suspects harm has come to her friend Margo, who is present but doesn’t seem to be herself. Anderson does a great job of doing a slow meltdown as her roommates watch her inner struggle. Hadley Zotti plays Margo with admirable aplomb, making it difficult to know or understand what the truth is.

Mazie Pancoast as the young wife Nancy, in “Twitch”, demonstrates how a vague feeling of curiosity can lead to full-blown outrage when one neighbor uncovers the secrets of another neighbor, who is actually eager to share. Will Culver as her husband tries to maintain a sense of reason but after a while, the machinations of his neighbor Don, played excruciatingly humorously by Hatcher Edmondson, wear him down.

Ellie Brewer as Emma, the bossy neighbor, was born to the part as she assures the young naive couple that all is as it should be.

In “This is a Test”, Jamie Lammers plays the wretched student who is not prepared for a test, as the rest of the class mocks him, the teacher chides him, and he is never sure whether he is asleep or awake. The test questions are ridiculous and impossible to answer. His frustration mounts as the clock ticks on. Fiona Eggleston plays the clueless teacher, and Emily Rumor, a seasoned member of the Thespians, plays the student who tries to reason with him. This play reflects many anxieties and nightmares that students face during, and for years after, their academic years of facing test after test, whether prepared or not.

These three plays were performed on Friday night and three others were performed on Saturday night. Between plays, talent show acts including: William Culver, Fiona Higgins, Mariah Engram and Emily Albright, Hattie Bakke and Hayley Turner demonstrated their vocal and instrumental skills.

The thespian company will now begin their long road to preparing for the spring musical.