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The 2018 CETA Theatre Festival

From Friday, January 12, to Sunday, January 14, the DLA Drama Club’s thespian troupe participated in the California Educational Theatre Association’s (CETA) 47th Annual High School Theatre Festival. The CETA Theatre Festival is a three day event that allows drama students to experience some of the top SoCal high school theatre productions, work with industry professionals in acting/tech workshops, and feature ten minute scenes from their own high schools’ shows.

According to the CETA official website, “Each year between October and December, the California Educational Theatre Association adjudicates Fall productions throughout the Southern California Region. The top high school productions are presented at our CETA Southern High School Theatre Festival during the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.” For 2018, the top shows were Secret in the Wings by Fullerton Union High School, The Laramie Project by John Burroughs High School, One Man Two Guvnors by Citrus Valley High School and The Love of Three Oranges by La Costa Canyon High School.

 

DAY 1.

Day 1 of the festival trip featured the excited thespians driving down to their hotel, dropping off their belongings, and indulging in an impromptu mall trip before having dinner and heading down to the festival. This year, the event was hosted by Los Osos High School located in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

One of the chaperones on the trip was not a stranger to the drama monsters, but this was her first time getting to spend hours and days with them. That chaperone was math teacher, Ms. Hamilton, and she provided some insight on what this first experience was like:

“Oh goodness. They’re awesome! They bring a lot of joy and a lot of happiness to me. They’re just super passionate, they’re super excited with what they’re doing. They really enjoy it and it’s very contagious, especially to me as a teacher who’s fortunate to work a little bit with them.”

That first evening’s itinerary involved an introduction to the festival followed by Fullerton Union High School’s astonishing performance of Secret in the Wings. This show starred Adam Ritter as Mr. Fitzpatrick and Ashley Shilts as Heide. In Secret in the Wings, young and innocent Heide is left to be looked after by her creepy neighbor, Mr. Fitzpatrick, while her parents go out for the evening. Throughout, Mr. Fitzpatrick continuously asks Heide to marry him, to which she continuously replies with no. In between these unsettling proposal attempts, Mr. Fitzpatrick reads to Heide a series of fairy tales. The audience soon discovers that these fairytales are not memorable storybook classics, but rather twisted retellings of them. It is through these stories that little Heide is slowly exposed to the reality of the world.

“I was completely mesmerized the entire time while watching Secret in the Wings,” says Drama Club Vice President, Brittany McDowell. “It was so different than any other show I have seen, which I found fascinating. It was both eerie and beautiful at the same time. Everything about it - the story, the music, the movements - captured my attention and held it throughout the whole show.”

Day 1 of the trip concluded with DLA’s Thespians retiring to their hotel rooms for the night, where they decided to either immediately go to bed, or invite others to their rooms for board games, snacks and and just plain hanging out.

“The first night was really fun!” declares sophomore, Brenda Nieto. “I got to spend time with my friends and play card games. I would 100% room with those girls again.”

Ruby Clasen, one of Brenda’s roomates, also states that they, “...put on weird looking face masks. It was really fun and we had a lot of laughs.”

“The hotel was super fun!” says Brittany McDowell. “I stayed with Bethany, Amber and Liv. Sean came up to our room and we played Uno for about an hour (I didn’t win).”

DAY 2

Day 2 of the CETA festival began with an extremely emotional and moving production of The Laramie Project, which was put on John Burroughs High School. Starring Paris Stacy as the narrator and main character, The Laramie Project takes place in 1998 Laramie, Wyoming and is about the savage murder of gay, college student, Matthew Shepard. The play was not only moving with how the characters reacted to the death of dearly loved Matthew, but also with how it tackled issues concerning the LGBT+ community, which continue to affect many LGBT+ individuals today. What made this particular performance of the play especially memorable was the special arrangement they applied to the show. This enabled them to include songs that were most likely not written into the original script. Of those songs included a heartwarming, tear jerking performance of “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen, a musical that opened on Broadway in 2016.

Amber Martinez, a senior, says that, “The Laramie Project was my favorite play from the weekend. I may be biased due to the subject matter, but the edits and additions made by the cast and crew added a lot to the emotional weight of the story. I found myself crying nonstop during the ends of both acts.”

(Author’s Note: I sat next to Amber during this show. I literally had to shove a pack of tissues into her hands.)

“The Laramie Project was an emotional rollercoaster,” states fellow senior, Olivier Lestrange. “I knew about the Matthew Shepard case, but I didn’t know about the people who were in his town and what life was like there. I felt chills run up my spine many times throughout the play.”

After watching such a brilliant performance, it came time for the students to finally participate in the various acting/tech workshops they were able to sign up for. These workshops gave them the opportunity to work with actual industry professionals, such as professional actors and those with certification concerning the performing arts. These workshops covered a number of different topics, such as improv, Shakespeare, film/stage acting, and musical theatre.

Brittany McDowell offered some insight on her workshops: “My first workshop gave me a really good look into what it would be like if I did pursue an acting career. They provided some really good facts and tips that aren’t always the easiest to find on the internet. After that, I went to one that was all about film acting. We did an exercise for cold reading that really helped the scenes feel more real with more emotion. I definitely want to use it in the future. We also talked a lot about how important it is to listen to your scene partners, which makes the emotions so much more real. The last class I went to was an improv class with ComedySportz. We played some fun improv games and worked on what makes good improv happen.”

Though most workshops were aimed at educating performers, there were some workshops that cater to people who work behind the scenes. Brenda Nieto, who has worked as a stage manager for some DLA productions, told us that, “As a stage manager, it was difficult to find workshops not directed towards actors. My first workshop was about makeup, wardrobe and wigs. I was hoping to learn more about those departments, but unfortunately I only learned about what the actors do to make those teams’ jobs easier. It was interesting though. My second workshop was a monologue writing workshop. I am no the best writer, but I enjoyed listening to others who write often. Many wrote very personal monologues that were beautifully written. My third workshop was about a short play. The teacher gave us a lot of great information. It was great to hear everyone’s ideas.”

As the second day drew closer to the evening, people had another opportunity to watch a high school play. This time, the performance was put on by Citrus Valley High School, and the title of their show was One Man Two Guvnors. Set in the 1960’s, One Man Two Guvnors is about a man named Francis Henshall who becomes separately hired by two men (hence: one man, two guvnors). Those men are Roscoe Crabbe, a gangster, and Stanley Stubbers, an upper class snob with crude humor. There is also Charlie and his daughter, Pauline, whom he wants to marry Roscoe. However, Pauline has eyes for amateur actor, Alan Dangle. The audience quickly discovers that Roscoe is actually Rachel Crabbe in disguise. Her brother, Roscoe, was actually killed by her boyfriend, who just so happens to be Stanley. Through a tangle of complicated events, bellyaching laughs, toe-tapping skiffle band interludes and audience interaction, all conflicts are eventually resolved and all lovers end up with their significant other. This show starred Matthew Klimper as Francis, Cassandra Carranza as Rachel, Jack Sennett as Stanley, Clarrissa To as Pauline, Daniel Hernandez as Alan and Zac Marquette as Charlie.

“After One Man Two Guvnors, I was very happy I went to the restroom before the show began, because I would have probably peed myself from laughing so much,” states Olivier Lestrange. “I was entertained throughout the entire play, and I was never bored at any point.”

Amber Martinez said that, “One Man Two Guvnors was hilarious beyond belief! The improv and the jokes the cast added in were the best of the whole show and each character was a blast. They all had their moments and even though not every joke hit, there were enough that the laughing nearly never stopped.”

In between these performances, CETA usually presents awards to various drama students from the high schools attending the festival. One of the awards included the Director’s Award, which praises an individual’s hardwork and dedication towards a particular show. For Del Lago Academy, the 2018 recipient of the Director’s Award went to Bethany Taylor, for her unwavering effort in the winter musical, She Loves Me.

DAY 3

On the last day of the festival, the drama students were able to watch one last show before they hit the road and went home. The final high school production featured at the CETA Festival was called The Love of Three Oranges, which was performed by La Costa Canyon High School. In The Love of Three Oranges, Prince Tartaglia’s life is filled with grief until an evil sorcerer curses him to search for three special oranges. While the story is narrated by a fourth wall breaking wizard, the prince goes off on his quest to find these oranges and discovers love, friendship and laughter along the way. This performance starred Rocco Polanco as the Narrator and Trevor Brown as Prince Tartaglia.

“The Love of Three Oranges was funny and I love how simple the sets were,” said Ruby Clasen. “The set crew did funny dances when they moved things and it made [scene] transitions nicer.”

According to Sean Mougier, “I thought The Love of Three Oranges was very beautiful. The sets were so simple yet effective in creating a mood that set up the whole show.”

Brenda Nieto states, “The Love of Three Oranges was my favorite show of the weekend. It was a great show with great jokes. I loved the fourth wall breaks and the actors did an incredible job.”

Once the final show came to a close, the drama kids boarded their various vans and began their drive home.

Of the people that were available to provide input, here are their final thoughts on the trip.

Brittany: “Being around 1,000+ theatre kids at one time is really an amazing experience. Granted, it’s a little crazy because, well, it’s theatre kids. But it was so cool because everyone understand and shares your same passions and will talk to you for hours about theatre things (which people don’t usually do). I think that it was a super great learning experience and I was inspired by so many people and I want to do so many cool things now. It was so fun to meet so many talented people and even make some new friends.”

Amber: “The trip was absolutely amazing. I wouldn’t give it up for the world and I hope to have made a new friend out of it.”

Liv: “The trip was an experience of a lifetime for a drama kid. While I didn’t interact with many people, I found myself feeling welcomed and at home.”

Sean: “I thought the trip was well worth it and so much fun. It was really cool to see other drama students compete against them to be the best.”

Brenda: “I loved being a part of this trip. I hope next year there will be some tech related workshops and a better lunch system (no one ate lunch because the line was way too long). But apart from that, this weekend was one of the best experiences I’ve had.”

Ruby: “I really enjoyed going on this trip and I would definitely go again if I had the chance.”

Until next time.


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