Barton Middle School’s One act Play Festival award winners include Best Actor Jesse Trader, All-Star Cast member Kailey Bozarth, Tech Award winner Alex Gonzales, and Honorable Mention All-Star Cast members Leah Nealis and Dylan Ramage. The group includes (back) Gonzales; (front, left to right), Nealis, Bozarth, Trader and Ramage. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
by JIM CULLEN
Local middle school theater students look forward to the annual Hays CISD One Act Play Festival, held at the Performing Art Center and bringing together the one act performances of each of the district’s five middle schools. That anticipation reached its conclusion Sunday as the 2011 event gathered the schools’ drama students for an afternoon of performances, fun and camaraderie. This year’s event was coordinated by Lehman High School theater teacher Marissa Meek, who was joined by a host of high school drama student volunteers.
The event involved scores of students from around the district and gave a glimpse into the foreseeable future for the Hays and Lehman high school theater programs. The final act in the festival presents recognition to each of the participating schools through honors for their drama students.
This year’ offerings included Barton Middle School’s “Candid” by Michal Scanlan, directed by Stephanie Townley; Dahlstrom Middle School’s “Shadow Light” by Amy Anselm-Kane, directed by Rob Vinyard; Chapa Middle School’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, directed by Susannah Mikulin and Owen Taylor; Simon Middle School’s “Mother Hicks” by Susan Zeder, directed by Hilary Lockhart; and Wallace Middle School’s “Goodbye to the Clown” by Ernest Kinoy, directed by Brandon Snyder.
Best Actor and Best Actress awards went, respectively, to Barton’s Jesse Trader and Chapa’s Sedona Grover. Tech Awards went to Esther Nyaberi (SMS), Brooke Longoria (WMS), Caroline Salas (CMS), Hanna Malott (DMS), and Alex Gonzales (BMS).
All-Star Cast honors went to Jose Berberena, Kyler McGehee, and Taylor King of Chapa, Joseph Burns and Alexis Gossett of Simon, Georgia Cardosa of Dahlstrom, Brittany Felch of Wallace, and Kailey Bozarth of Barton. Honorable Mention All-Star Cast went to Jamie Gonzales and Keaton Miles of Wallace, Sara Lunan of Simon, Breanna Higgins of Chapa, Meghan Guerin and Emma Barnett of Dahlstrom, and Leah Nealis and Dylan Ramage of Barton.
