East Steals the Show
The East High Drama team posing with their toothbrushes provided to them while staying overnight in the UW dorms.
January 10, 2017
This is it- the final moments of State Drama. “In third place… Campbell County!” The anticipation build, and the students become still. “Second place goes to… Cheyenne Central!” After a moment of congratulatory claps, scattered hushes come from all around the auditorium. Every breath becomes held. “And in first place…” Everyone leans forward, the collective question running through their minds- who had won? And then “Cheyenne East!” After a moment of pure shock and applause rains down from the auditorium all for the team in blue.
Starting in August, the Drama teams start preparations for the Wyoming State Drama Competition. Each student auditions to act for the team or researches styles and ideas for the technical events. Pouring hundreds of hour into as many as six events per team member, the students worry over every detail.
The technical events at state are make-up, lighting, scenic design, publicity, costume and original script. Each tech event has four levels of competition, with each level progressively becoming more difficult as you move up. Usually these levels correspond with different grade levels, but that doesn’t stop some students.
Sophomore Michael Norris placed 4th in fourth-year lighting design. Sophomore Maggie Perish, also competed above her grade level and took 15th in third-year fantasy makeup, while also earning an All-State in the event.
All-State is awarded to competitors who, according to the judges, have the skills to display their designs at The International Thespian Festival which takes place in June.
The first place arena, Elephant’s Graveyard, was a show inspired by the true events of Murderous Mary and directed by East’s Christina Zarr, received a perfect score. The judges offered scholarships to the seniors James Brown, Kristen Downs and Gage Nix.
“I was kind of really excited, but I was kind of in a cocky ‘I told you so’ attitude,” said senior James Brown, “Because I said multiple times to the cast that the way we performed Elephant’s Graveyard and our energy was so much better than what we did with our last show Playboy of the Western World, and we took 4th.”
East’s Group Performance Art, 35.8 Million, directed by East’s Jeff Miller, took second in its division. GPA is an event in which the team is given a social issue and tasked to write, direct, and present a show based around the issue. This year, EHS students wrote their GPA on the horrors of human trafficking. East High is unique in their presentation of GPA performances in that the students performing in the show write the script without any help from their adult advisors. This second place win was enough to boost East into first place in the 4A sweepstakes.
Other acting events also saw success. Senior Mac Rogers took 1st with his dramatic monologue. James Brown, also a senior, took 3rd with a humorous monologue and received an All-State. Shelby Albright and Marcel Bohlmann, both juniors took 10th in humorous duets and also received All-States.
“When I heard that Central got second I was like, ‘Does that mean that we got first?” said sophomore Kathryn Dobson.
The theater classes are now heading into the spring show season with the IB and Theater 1 classes scheduled to perform on February 15 and 16, and the Theater 2 and 3 shows being on April 27 and 28.
