The theater department brought home the first place championship for their performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” after qualifying for State with their One Act performance for the first time in school history.
“We couldn’t believe [that we qualified to finals],” Erica Glidewell, theater teacher said. “We were happy to be at state, we just couldn’t believe we made finals. We know we did really well but still.”
Pirate Performers went to MSHAA theater districts on March 17 where they placed second which qualified them for state for the first time in school history. The competition aspect of theater is a one class system, unlike other activities and at the district level it is separated by distance between schools and not the amount of students. This means that they were technically competing against every high school in the state, even 5 or 6A schools. Out of eight districts, 10 compete in each, then two move on to compete at state. So, out of 80 teams, Pirate Performers moved on to be top 16, then top four, then champions.
“We were just excited to be part of that 16 because it’s really hard to break out of the 10 in your district,” Glidewell said. “[When we found out we won] We felt like Cinderella at the ball, it really was like a fairytale.”
The first day of state was held on April 23 and their performance in the preliminary round qualified them to finals where they competed a day later. The top two schools from districts move on to the state competition where there are 16 competitors in the pre-lims which are split into two groups of eight. The top two schools from these groups advance to finals.
Pirate Performers performed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” which is about a Greek love triangle and fairies, written by William Shakespeare. It is focused on a group of friends who get spells cast on them by fairies the evening before one of the friend’s wedding.
They had some challenges with the play. Learning Shakespeare was the biggest challenge, simply because the language was so different from how they normally speak and perform, which limited their understanding of the play. The group also had to build a set that would be able to be put up and taken down within 30 minutes, which includes all of the technology such as lights and sound.
“I loved watching students grow,” Erica Glidewell, theatre teacher, said. “They went from not understanding what they were saying at all to having collegiate professors in the theater industry and professional directors come up to us and say that that was the best and most understood high school [performance of Shakespeare].”
Not only did they receive their historic first place, senior Gabriel Miller was recognized with the award for best supporting actor in all of the finals competition for his role as Demetrius.
“It was really awesome, I low-key zoned out when they were announcing it, so all I heard was my name, and everyone started cheering,” Miller said. “I did not think I was going to get it, it was a lot of fun because I truly put my heart out on the stage. I just had so much fun with the show and just to be awarded for that was really nice.”
