By Karah Wilson
karah@southerntorch.com
RAINSVILLE, Ala.—Plainview High School’s “Bear Theatre” group is now in its 4th season. On Nov. 7, they competed in the District Trumbauer Theatre Competition at Lee High School in Huntsville. This high school festival is part of the Alabama Conference of Theatre which is a subsidiary of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, the largest professional theatre conference in the nation.
Bear Theatre competes in District 1 with schools in the Huntsville and Madison communities. “We are in the largest Theatre district in the State. We took individual events such as songs and acting scenes as well as a one act play adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The One Act Play Festival is the highlight of the competition,” Theatre and English teacher, Sara Argio, said.
This is the 3rd year in a row Plainview Bear Theatre’s one act has been among the small number of plays chosen to move forward to compete at the State level. State competitions will be held Dec. 3-5 at Troy University. Plainview High, Huntsville High, Bob Jones High, and James Clemens High will be the schools representing District 1 in the One Act Play festival.
District awards:
*All Star Cast Awards for A Midsummer Night’s Dream went to Allie Dierks, Payton Lewis, Austin Evans, Camron Ballenger, and Alex Smith.
*Best Supporting Actress went to Allie Dierks for her role as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
*Best Actress went to Kaelin Butts for her role as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
*Best in Show One Act went to our play A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The following students also had their individual events passed on to compete at State: Emily Adams, Kaelin Butts, Allie Dierks, Camron Ballenger, Alex Smith, Payton Lewis, Krista Richey, Gabe Lankford, Marc Mendoza, Skyler Kasinger, Anna Jenkins, Madison Adkins, Andrew Bowlan, Alex Edge, Thomas Hartline
“I am so very proud of my students, and their hard work is paying off. The competition at the District level is incredibly intense. We compete against 7A and 6A schools that have not one but two full time Theatre teachers. For us to bring home all these awards is a major accomplishment. At State seniors will have the opportunity to audition for college scholarships, and if our one act is in the top 2 in the entire State, we will be pass on to compete at the National level at the yearly Southeastern Theatre Conference in the High School division. This year the Conference will be held in Greensboro, NC. This would be amazing for us and it is a goal we are working hard to achieve,” Argiro said.
