Region and State Drama- bringing home the BLING!

 Drama Competitions in the Spring brought Katelyn some of her greatest triumphs!! 

So here's the backstory: She was supposed to compete in Pantomime with her friend Phoebe. But over Christmas Phoebe had a mental breakdown and didn't come back to school for the rest of the year.  So Katelyn was "stuck" doing a solo pantomime....but it ended up being a huge blessing!  She knew good pantomimes need music, so she picked a classical song from Let's Play Music. Using the basic Circus theme of the LPM puppet show, she created this whole amazing story to follow the music. She started out silent, as a painter who is frustrated with her work and destroys a bunch of paintings in a rage.  Then she goes to her window and opens it... and hears the music of a circus in the distance (cue the music- started by me!) and has an inspiration!  She then switched back and forth from being the painter drawing the circus on the wall, to BEING each of the characters in the circus, perfectly timed with the music ("stepping" in and out of the painting each time).  In the end the music stops, and the re-invigorated painter sits back down to paint with joy on her face.  She worked this pantomime over and over, got suggestions from her teacher and classmates and alumni.  She had great pantomime training from doing Our Town, where there's minimal set and props.  So her spacial awareness was great.  And she filled out each character with big expressions and body movements.  It turned out to be a masterpiece, and the judges definitely recognized that! And rewarded her with First place in the Region Drama Competition!

It was so exciting, here's Marz, Jacob, Sulice, Kate, Annica, Lizzie, Alex, and Andrea in the auditorium waiting for awards.

Sulice took 3rd in Humorous Monologue, so they partied together after!

Then a few weeks later, after more work and adjustments to the pantomine, Katelyn went to the State Drama Competition in Cedar City and took 2nd!!  More on that later. And she got a Drama Superior Medal.

Kate, Marz, Clover and Allie in their theater room bedroom at State.

Oh and just for fun, a backstage 3 Musketeers Pic of Katelyn, Andrea, Marz, Liliana, Allie, Bekah, Malaina, Lina, and Hannah.

Okay I love these pictures. This is the cast of Macduff, the Drama 4 Competition One-Act, getting their notes from the judges at Region.  So much talent in this group!!  And there was so much creative collaboration in the rehearsal process, it was really cool to see their ideas come to life on stage.  Katelyn had the lead role of Lady Macduff; she got to be married to Ben again haha.  But I loved that here onstage she was sitting between Brady and Michaiah-- 2 boys she has been acting with since 8th grade.  She has played romantic interest and servant to both of them!  They work well together and respect each other.

This is the full cast in a key moment of the show- the fight to the death between Michaiah and Ben- Macbeth and Macduff. Also I should note that Macduff is not an actual play- it's a re-telling from the perspective of Macduff, using Shakespeare from Macbeth and other plays- compiled by Ms. Millet and her daughter Maddie!!  They are incredible!!

Katelyn got to play a mom- to Andrea, Annica, and a baby with lots of hair haha

Macbeth monologuing and being plagued by spirits of those he had murdered.

Discussions between husband and wife, and playing with her children

They had a lot of really cool effects with Light in the show.  The color-changing lanterns, the Drama 3 kids crouched down in front to shine flashlights and create amazing huge shadows in the background.... lights added a lot of depth and symbolism to the show.

In the beginning of the show, Katelyn is in love with macbeth (Michaiah), and it was fun to see her get to act that. :)

Then she gets dumped by him and Ben comforts her. And here they are during bows.  That's the last of the pictures from Region.  They took Second for their One-Act, but should have won!  They had the biggest cast and the most cool effects at least!

Oh and here is Katelyn about to start her pantomime at Region. Our whole family drove up to Salt Lake to see her perform, it was awesome.

And now on to the State Drama Competition in Cedar City. I got to go chaperone for this, it was AMAZING and I'm so so glad I went!  Here's Katelyn flirting in the beginning scene:

And flirting later with Ben in a whole new scene Ms Millet added between Region and State!  To better develop Macduff's character through his love story with his wife.

At a banquet 

Discussing family and political matters as husband and wife.

Some of the best lines of the show were here in these family scenes.

This theater was weird and the auditorium couldn't be made completely dark?? So it made the light effects not quite as bold. but this part was still very cool, and even though it was a really tense and even disturbing moment of the show (Macbeth going mad) it was beautiful!  They had several different colors of lanterns, and they moved them faster or more wildly as the scene went on.

Katelyn and her daughers being murdered!!  and then haunting Lady Macbeth with creepy black makeup across their faces.

The end fighting scene- with dead people wearing red and chant/shouting various things. AND then, the moment that almost brought me-and Katelyn-and Ben! to tears; after Ben has won, he cries/prays/bows to his perished family. He told Katelyn after, that when he looked up into her face, she was so sad/loving/tragic that it almost made him cry!

Here's the cast after- by a big tree like the one in their set.

Love this picture so much. Katelyn with these awesome senior boys she had the privilege of acting with.  Michaiah, who normally can't take a serious picture to save his life, had just been crying because this was his last high school show! So sad! And Ben.

And then Katelyn with her children haha.

Alex and Katelyn enjoying the slide in their room at the house!  And THIS hahaha. Michaiah had been dying to go to some book store nearby, and none of them had cars obviously.  So he knew I was a sucker and would say yes to driving them!  It was 4 Senior boys, and he was like "Katelyn can come along, she likes to read right?" The only problem was that the back of my van was full of props.  Including a huge lamppost thing sticking into the middle seat.  So Kate sat in front and the 4 boys squished in the middle- it ended up being Ben Michaiah and Rango with Brady laying across their laps!  The 10 minute drive each way, the walk down the street, looking at books with the boys, were all SO hilarious, and I took this picture so we could remember that it happened.

This is the list of rooms Katelyn competed in. It was such a fun experience to go to all the rounds, see all these kids acting their hearts out.  And best of all, see so many kids supporting each other!  Talking to kids from other schools, complimenting their competitors, and generally being great humans.  It reminded me a little of cross country meet atmosphere.  Where everyone there is doing something really challenging, and so they are bonded through that challenge despite where they are from, age, race, gender, any other divider.  if you are willing to work hard to prepare, and overcome your fears to race/perform, you join the brotherhood/sisterhood, you are connected by the experience.  It was cool to see.

Here's me and katelyn waiting nervously for the medals rounds to be announced.  I have never seen her so nervous!!  She had seen most of her competition perform, and she knew she was near the top and had a shot to make Medals round for the first time ever.... so nerve-wracking!

And then this came on the screen- she was F501. She was freaking out!!  And as everyone from ALA realized it was her, they were all cheering and clapping, senior boys jumping over the seats to hug her and jump around in excitement!  One of the best moments of her Drama life!!

Luckily we didn't have to wait long, just a few minutes, before it was time to go into the room.  There were 8 pantomimes in the medals round, and I think she was the only solo? It was SO cool to be there with all the other top kids in the state and their friends/family.  And there was some INCREDIBLE talent there!!  Amazing acting, and also creativity!  

Katelyn was such a joy to watch.  Hers may not have been as deep and thought provoking as some of the other pantomimes, but it was DELIGHTFUL and the story of the painter did give it meaning- the struggle of an artist and the joy of inspiration. And the characters were so fun- a Lion Tamer, the Lion, a Strong Man, a Tightrope walker, a Clown, and a little girl watching the circus amazed. She performed it perfectly, her very best.  I was happy I had taught her proper weight-lifting technique for the Strong Man character, she did it well!

They didn't announce the results until the next day, and she ended up getting second place!!! First place was these 2 boys playing/flying a fighterjet and getting shot down/playing again- they were INCREDIBLE and deserved it.  3rd was these 2 girls doing a car accident/fast rewind/do-over thing that was awesome. And there was this other crazy Nazi love story one and these 2 guys with this time travel vortex thing. So many excellent pantomimes. So Katelyn felt super honored to get 2nd in the State against all these great actors! It was her greatest triumph and I was SO proud of her and SO happy I got to be there.