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On April 9, at 7 p.m., fire truck sirens filled the air. However, there was no fire, only the drama department coming home from their first ever win at state.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Emily Wheeler, an actor at NS who placed first in both of her events at both region and state.
It has been an NS tradition to bring the winers of a state competition into town on a fire truck, a tradition passed onto the NS drama team for the first time in their history. At the state competition, the NS drama students tied with Union for the best drama department in the state.
“We’ve come really close in the past so it was an awesome feeling to finally achieve first place,” said Alex Barlow, director of the NS drama program.
The competition had students competing in six different events, including dramatic monologues, humorous monologues, classical scenes, comedic scenes, pantomimes, and musical theater performances. This year, Adelay Stavros and Evan Barsic placed fourth with their classical scene, Shaylee Wilkey and Rory Anderson placed third with their classical scene, Caylee Nesbit and Libby Booher placed third with their pantomime, and Emily Wheeler placed first in both of her events: musical theater and humorous monologue.
“Everyone worked really hard. There was a lot of time, and tears, and effort put into every one of these pieces,” said Brooklyn Copple, one of the actors in the drama department.
In addition to the six events, the drama department was required to perform a twenty-five minute one-act, which is a small play put on to tell a short story. The One Act that the drama department was called “Soldier One.” Soldier One was an original piece composed of other Shakespeare ideas and pieces for a ten-minute One Act for the Shakespeare competition earlier this year.
The One Act was elongated to twenty-five minutes for the region competition, and then enhanced by Barlow for the state competition. The drama department received second place for their One Act, and the award of Best Ensemble in a One Act. At the end of the competition, all of the points awarded for any and all place finishes are tallied for sweepstakes, the overall award of the competition. NS tied for first place with Union with 1500 points, giving both the first place title, and giving the drama department their first win at state.
“The fact that we were all committed, and wanted to do this, helped our overall performance,” said Cloe Jessop, another one of the actors in the drama department.
Though it was the great team that brought the victory, many agree that a great deal of the congratulations belong to the directors, Alex Barlow and Sara Anderson. Though they weren’t on the stage, or on the fire trucks, their influence helped send the team towards the first state win since either of them started directing.
“Our directors, Barlow and Sara [Anderson], helped a lot,” said Libby Booher, another one of the actors in the drama department.
The win at state was especially satisfying because of the team’s third-place finish at region, and the fact that they were able to overcome their rival Manti High School after years of dominance by the Templars.
“In years past we’ve come really close, I think last year we were just 2 points off,” Barlow said.
With this new momentum, the drama department is hopeful for future victories and state wins. The trophy will be housed with all the other trophies from region and other competitions, a testament to what is possible when you have commitment, determination, and a great team.
“We could only be successful because we had a great team,” Jessop said.
