Advanced Drama Competes at the Fullerton College Theatre Festival

Theatre students attend Southern California event to gain more stage experience

March 18, 2010

By Michelle Doan, Design Manager

Theater Students before the competition

Carpe Pulpitum, seize the stage—the slogan served as this year\’s slogan for the Fullerton College Theatre Festival which was held between Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13. High school drama programs from all over Southern California, including our own, attended this enormous event to compete for awards and stage experience in acting, improv, Tech Olympics, make-up design, and musical theatre.

The special guest host was Dante Bosco, voice actor for the character Zuko in the Nickelodeon television show, Avatar: The Last Airbender. At the opening ceremony, he spoke about his previous experience in high school theatre in Southern California, but many of the students were overwhelmed to see the voice of Zuko in person.

“I couldn\’t concentrate on what anyone was saying,” said Melissa Jean (\’12), “I was paying too much attention on Dante\’s voice and amazed that he played Zuko. All I wanted him to say was, ‘Uncle,\’ and my life would be complete.”

After the opening ceremony, students were separated into their respective groups and assigned rooms at scheduled times for their performances. FVHS Advanced Drama, supervised by department director Eva White, competed in the Contemporary Humorous Monologues or Scenes, Contemporary Dramatic Monologues or Scenes, Classical Humorous Monologues or Scenes, Classical Dramatic Monologues or Scenes, and Theatre Games (improv) categories.

Of the performances, only one—Emily Fitzpatrick\’s (\’11)—was able to make it to the final round. She presented a classical humorous monologue as Helena from A Midsummer Night\’s Dream by William Shakespeare, a play which our Theater Department had put on not too long ago. Unfortunately, Fitzpatrick was not able to place, but she did make to the top ten in this highly competitive section of the festival.

Although they did not win any awards, Baron Drama students were encouraged to compete again because of the many trophies handed to competing schools. It was their first time attending the Fullerton College Theatre Festival, and they plan to attend the festival again next year.

“These festivals serve as a learning experience for all of us,” said co-department director Crystal Jerabek, “After gaining experience at Fullerton, we just need to get more motivation and energy to make sure we have what it takes to win awards at the next festival.”

Tickets to Fullerton College\’s musical theatre production of the Broadway play, RENT, were given out to fifteen members from each school on the nights following the festival. After a long weekend, RENT served as a relaxing ending to their trip.

“The performance was really good,” said Alexandra Peters (\’10), who wishes to pursue her dream to perform in Broadway, “But the person who sang as Maureen could have (sung) her part in ‘Take Me or Leave It\’ a lot stronger,”

FVHS Advanced Drama will be attending their next festival at Long Beach in April. There, the department hopes to perform stronger, and with more confidence.