Canyon’s theater students recently participated in this year’s Drama Teachers Association of Southern California (DTASC) fall festival. The festival was held at Calabasa High School on Oct. 19. This event has different theater programs in Southern California that gather each year to compete.
DTASC is split into two separate events: the drama event and the tech event. Canyon did not participate in the tech event this year, so I will only cover the drama portion.
The first event of DTASC was monologues. The two monologues from Canyon were performed by Bailey Bond and Breezy Mulan Gilles. For the monologue event, if multiple people from the same school enter, only one student can be entered into the finals. In this case, Bailey Bond’s monologue was the finalist, but both girls showed off their outstanding skills.
Another category is “Female Centric.” As the name “Female Centric” suggests, the scenes performed main focus is around a female character. For this category, Canyon students performed from “Agnes of God” with Emily Sproule as Agnes, Melody Ramirez as Dr. Livingston, Brooke Swan as Mother Miriam, and Maddie Woodring as a singing voice. These talented individuals did an amazing job in their category and ended up as finalists out of approximately 70 different schools!
The “After the Play” category had Canyon students competing with their own original piece. How the category works is that, for each festival, a different theme is chosen for students to create a script. This year’s theme of “After the Play” required students to give more closure to what happened to characters after the play ends. The play Canyon theater students chose to write an ending to was “The Crucible.” This scene was created by Eli Anicah Agcaoili, Aryanna Ochoa, Abeer Saiyed, and Mackenzie Nunez. These creative minds managed to write a moving after scene that earned them a spot as finalists.
The “Large Group Open Drama” category consisted of Julietta Amador, Melody Conner, Evie Greene, Cindy Orozco, Lexi Milak, and Justine Rodriguez. They performed “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess. For those who don’t know, “A Clockwork Orange” is a dystopian film. Unfortunately, the large group missed being finalists by one point. Even though this group did not make finals, they performed an outstanding show.
Brandon Davenport, James Cineros, Josh Ighodaro, Madi Goro, Tali Lazar, Brookelyn Laci, Sofiah Lopez, Diane Riser Muhammad, Isla Singley, and Victoria Zarasua participated in the “Large Group Musical.” Their performance of “Parade” by Jason Robert Brown earned them the title of finalists in this category.
For the “Oscar Best Picture Win” category, “A Million Dollar Baby” by F.X. Toole was performed. This category had Canyon make it to finals due to the incredible performances by Charlie Arnold, Lance Hurd, Jasia Orozco, and Desi Shack Wick.
In this year’s DTASC festival, Canyon came back with amazing achievements in all the categories they entered. When asked how she felt about Canyon’s achievements, Julietta Amador said, “I am very proud of everyone and all the hard work they put into their scenes. This is not an easy job to do, I am glad everyone made it to finals. Even if my group missed finals by one point, I am still proud of what we accomplished.”
Canyon’s theater program has a promising future, so make sure to show support by attending their upcoming performance of the musical “Grease” on Nov. 20 to Nov. 23 in the Performing Arts Center here at Canyon. Tickets are $5 for students and children and $10 for adults.
