The drama department brought home many wins from the Nebraska Thespians State Festival–from scoring second in Improv, many superior thespy ratings, to having a performer perform her thespy on the main stage at the Holland Performing Arts Center.
When a troupe is preparing to bring things to state it requires a lot of preparation.
“I practiced nonstop,” senior Lauren Watson said. “Every day if not every other day, I was singing and practicing as if I was already chosen to do the showcase. If I wasn’t singing out loud, I was running through it,” Watson said.
She performed the song “Easy as Life” from the musical Aida.
Performers who get a callback perform their pieces in front of judges for a chance to perform on the Holland stage.
“I was singing in the bathroom beforehand and I was the last to go for my time and first round group so that was scary,” Watson said, “And when my music cut off, panic washed over me, but continuing on helped me grow and showed how I would be in the real world during a show.”
Watson was one of the 10 chosen to perform on the Holland stage at the closing ceremony of the State Festival. Hundreds of submissions are taken into account when choosing finalists.
“I also tried different techniques in order to perfect my diction, emotion, hard hitting things in order to give it my all,” Watson said. In order to perform on stage you need to stand out from the others. And she was determined.
“It was absolutely magical, and I was so honored to perform for the state of Nebraska and interact with other students that I only dreamed of seeing up close,” Watson said.
The improv team also had their own score during the festival. Making the qualifying rounds and top four, ultimately coming in 2nd. The last time South made the qualifying round was 2023.
Getting notified of the top four was another surprise.
“[I felt] shocked and extremely happy,” senior Roosevelt Wilken, the improv team captain said. “I really didn’t think we would do as well as we did.”
The rest of the Improv team consisted of seniors Maria Hubert, Ryan McConachie, Toby Schweitzer, alongside juniors Halle Hinton and Ethan Schmidt.
Improv is a go with the flow acting style. You are given a scenario and you have to build off it to make up a scene with actors.
“I felt really good. People came up to me throughout state to tell me how funny they thought I was, which was wonderful,” Wilken said.
