Lakeland High School’s theater troupe brought home first place in its Conference 27 theater competition this week.

The competition is part of the 2015-2016 One-Act Play Festival and was hosted at Booker T. Washington High School this year.

“All of us have come so far, and I’m so proud that we won our first competition,” said Landon Wigg, a freshman drama club member. “I can’t wait to see how we do in our regional competition, and I can’t wait to see what the next three years bring.”

The group chose to act out a play called “Cheating Death,” written by Kamron Klitgaard and published by Pioneer Drama Service Inc.

“It’s a dark comedy that starts off funny, but ends up in a very serious place. Seven mental patients are going through the motions of their day-to-day life when death comes for one of them. Then they have to deal with not only their own mortality, but also the death of a friend. Eventually, death wins,” said Drama Coach Lauren Ertekin.

To participate in the One-Act Festival, each team is responsible for choosing a one-act play that is no more than 35 minutes long.

The 35-minute production is scored on a 100-point scale by a panel of four judges. The judges then award the piece with an overall ranking of fair, good, excellent or superior.

The Cavalier Theatre Troupe took home not only a first-place trophy but also a score of 285 and a superior rating from the judges.

“It’s amazing how hard the kids have been working on it for the past two months,” said Ertekin. “Generally, the judges want dynamic pieces. This piece showed that the actors can provide comedy, but they can also bring an entire audience to tears within 35 minutes.”