The school’s theater program placed first in their Drama Teachers Association of Southern California (DTASC) competition April 20, after spending hours rehearsing and working hard.
“DTASC is a competition where you take full length plays or musicals and you shorten them to five to eight minutes and compete with them,” freshman Chance December said. “I chose to participate because my brother said it was really great [so I decided] I’ll join because it’s something interesting.”
Students in the theater program were excited to compete after they put in a lot of effort to put on a successful show. They have spent time throughout the past few weeks, preparing to act in various performances in different categories, including many Shakespeare related ones along with comedic ones.
“Every day we’ve been practicing in class,” freshman Dash Stainner said. “We’ve [also] been practicing lines outside and running scenes thoroughly. I’ve met up with my group members and we’ve practiced outside of school.”
There are about 30 schools participating in this DTASC and in previous competitions, the school’s junior varsity program has placed third out of 40 other teams.
“I think it could be really stressful sometimes,” freshman Brody Lauritzen. “But I’m with all my friends and it’s really fun.”
This time, the group only had two weeks to prepare, in comparison to their three months for the prior one. Along with the time crunch, the program agreed that the Shakespeare theme would be a bit harder than their competition before.
“[DTASC is] chaotic, but really fun,” freshman Emma Fishman said. “You’re constantly moving and going from room to room trying to make it in time so you can compete in finals or semi-finals. It’s also just a fun event, because you get to meet new people and if you’re a freshman like me, you get to spend three more years with everyone at all the festivals.”
Despite the stress and challenges the group faces with competitions, they all find enjoyment in it, especially with being able to spend time with one another.
“[I] like getting to work with the upperclassmen to get to know them better,” Fishman said. “Also the bus ride is really fun because we’re all excited. We’re all a mix of tired, afraid and just anxious, but we have fun.”
Upperclassmen assist in writing the scripts for each competition and guide the others through their performances. Students of all grades in theater are able to connect with each other, where they have formed a strong bond and enjoy performing in competitions like DTASC.
“[Theater and DTASC] are an awesome way to express yourself,” Stainner said. “It’s great to just learn some good social skills and you learn a lot from just watching too.”