SOUTHSTAGE Blog: 2013

I think play festival went really good! There were a few times they messed up but you couldn't really tell!!! I feel like if people would have taken the play very serious and challenged them selves each and every day to reach high goals they set them selves it would go a lot better! They needs to speak louder but in the end it was very good!!! I think each of them did well!
My overall impression is I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun! My favorite play was the one with Goldy Locks and the Three Bears! I liked that one because it was very funny and interesting! It had you standing on your toes wondering what's going to happen next!
- Haley
Saturday, November 2^nd, we had play fest at Wilmington at Ashley High School. “The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note” was very successful. I think all of us did very well and I’m proud of everything we did. We worked really hard on this play and it showed Saturday.

There were six performances, including us. I think everyone did an amazing job. Each and every single actor/ actress worked hard. My favorite performance was “Over Tones” by East Columbus. They were creative with their play and entertaining to the audience. My next favorite was “Genre” by West Brunswick High School. This was their first time going to play fest, and they got many awards. They expressed “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” in many entertaining ways.

I think we should improve “The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Not” by working on our country accents. That was our only negative comment that the judges gave us. I think we did the best we could have and I’m proud of everyone’s hard work. Many of the actors in our play had never attended play fest before, but they didn’t show it. We all did an amazing job.

I want to thank everyone for the experience we shared. This was my last performance at Play Fest. Being a senior reminds me how much I’ve grown since the first time I took theater. I grew up and made many friends in my theater classes. I’m glad I got to share this experience with my classmates since my freshman year at South Columbus High. I hope that the theater class does a wonderful job next year!

- Erica

I think we did really good at play fest other than our accent and I feel we had our lines down good and if we missed lines it went unnoticed. To improve our selves I think we could have worked on our voices more and how we each spoke there's not really in my opinions thing that needed a lot of improvement other than voices. My favorite play would have to been "Genre" they seemed like a really nice group to work with and they all worked together and you could tell they had many practices with the play and by far I didn't see not one thing wrong with it, or anything they could improve on. Last but not least my over all impression of play fest was its pretty fun I just wish we could do our play again. I feel like a lot of our hard work is going to waste since we are unable to do it again. And I think we should enter more contests in the future to better prepare us for showing off our plays to the general public.
- Jayda

I had an awesome time at the Play Festival. It really boosted up my self confidence. I'm very proud of everyone that participated in it! We all did a great job. We had butterflies before and during the time we performed. We only missed a couple of lines but we pulled it together and no one in the audience could tell. The only thing that I think that we could have done better is the way we were pronouncing our words. I know we are country but we could have worked on that a little. I realized that after the judges made it so clear. I really think that the reason we didn't practice more on using adult voices was because most of the characters were teenagers and we were so focused on getting our lines correct. I know that we will ace our next performance because we know exactly what we need to work on to improve. I really enjoyed watching West Brunswick perform the play "Genre". It was a lot of different genres put into one play. It was really funny and I'm sure that everyone in the audience enjoyed it very much. My overall impression on the whole thing is that we all did a remarkable job. It takes a lot of confidence to act in front all those people. We left with two of the biggest awards anyone there could have got at the Play Festival. I'm looking forward to performing again because we will only get better!

- Morgan

I really enjoyed playfest, I liked performing. I think we could have been a little bit louder and if we could have got the cubes to sit on, that would have been cool. Those are some of the things holding us back from getting better scores. I feel like my classmates did well, but our accent held us back as well. I liked all the other plays, but my favorite was "Now You See Me" by Ashley High School. Although parts of it were confusing. That actually happens more than people think, It is actually pretty common. I feel like we were really prepared, the only thing we need to do different in that area is to know who is going and who isn't. So i really enjoyed playfest and would really like and enjoy it if i got to go again.
- Gage

The performance of The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note turned out to be a great performance. I feel as if my performance was the best that I could possibly do; I gave all my energy that I had and used as much emotion and physicality as I could. My classmates, however, I think they went above and beyond what I expected them to do. I am so proud of them in every way possible. We worked so hard and it showed.
To better improve our performances in the future I think that we could start with the maximum motivation to win from the start of practicing that play. Throughout the whole process of practicing TBBMSN, we had a lot of ups and downs. But we got through it as a "family".
One of my favorite productions at the festival was the play "Genre". The actors were hilarious, along with the script. I loved the incredibly original aspect of the Genre and how each of the actors interpreted their character in their own way. My overall impression of it would be that I thought the play, actors, set and everything was amazing and incredibly impressive. I would absolutely love to perform it someday.
I think the festival was possibly the most fun I've ever had at a school-related event. I am so excited and honored to do this for the rest of my high school career. It helped me realize how much I do have to step up to be as amazing as others. It was very humbling and productive. I also loved the improv games, which helped me open up more than I ever have.
- Eryn

I enjoyed Play Festival so much! I feel that everyone gave 110%! I can honestly say everyone did their very best, and also had fun doing so. Everyone was loud enough and projected their voices very well. No one broke character, not once! Some even put raw emotion in it, which comes naturally if you're really in character and you understand what your character is feeling, which is what you should be feeling. I wouldn't change a thing because everyone did so well.

I think we could prepare better to improve future performances by getting lines down faster. The faster you get you lines down, the more time you'll have to act fully in character and show more emotion. Even though we did great, imagine if we started off more like the last two weeks until Play Fest. We could have been even better believe it or not! We needed more time to brake down everyone's character and figure out what exactly their objective is. Anymore future adult roles need to be played with more distinction of a adult rather than a teen acting an adult. We needed more time to focus on that. Also we need to have an understudy for each part, or at least a few people who could take on roles. Due to people not showing up, we lost points and someone who already had a part had to learn new lines to fill in for a scene. Another small part that added to a scene was also cut. Lastly, instead of having chairs, it would have been better if we made time to have cubes to sit on. Another nice touch would have been to make each cube different, and have words or symbols representing each different character.

One of my favorite plays performed at Play Fest was the Comedy called "Genre". I love comedies, and I love that this particular comedy involved the audience. I love audience participation! Also it was just so funny! I could tell everyone in the audience enjoyed it very much. What impressed me the most is that the cast were all females. Not only that but females filling male roles, and they did a fantastic job at doing so efficiently! Setting aside the fact that they did a comedy that everyone loved, they were all individually great actors. This comedy just so happen to show off their acting skills. Overall I think they made a very good play choice that everyone loved.

My overall impression of Play Fest, is that I loved it! I enjoyed it so much, I felt so comfortable while performing on stage and I gave it my all! I also felt comfortable around everyone their, and I loved watching people participate in the theatre games they held while the judges were deliberating. I think Play Fest is a good way to practice being on stage, and performing. Also being evaluated on our skills as an actor and performer shows people their strengths, weaknesses and how you can improve. I'm already ready to go back next year! It was quiet the experience having the lead for my first performance at Play Fest and also being awarded "Best Actor (Female) of a Drama". I'm also so proud of Jamal Baker for winning "Best Actor (Male) of a Drama. It really shows how hard we worked, and how hard Mrs. Jones worked to get us ready for Play Fest! I don't think I can ever get the point across enough of how proud I am of our entire cast, and what a job well done they did! Everyone gave it their all! I couldn't be prouder.

- Emilee

As of play fest this year at Ashley High School, I think our school performed really well. I was really proud of my cast this year. We did an amazing job, even though we didn’t bring home superior. We really gave it our all, I do believe. We took it, and made it our own, as if it was us in real life. It was a very touchy, deep play to do, but I think we took it to the heart. I have learned a lot from doing this play.

I think we could improve on a few minor things to prepare for the future. For example, our accents for one! That one was number one thing that stuck out the most at play fest was our accents. Other minor things are, picking up the pace in between, less scene changes, and just take time to think about the play instead of last minute changes to the play. Everybody was really loud, but I still think we could work on our projection a little more and staging. Other than those few things I think we did really well.

One of the scenes that stuck out the most to me was the comedy “Genre” by West Brunswick High. That was a really good play to me. I love how they used the dancers during the load in an loud out. It was really unique. The one thing that most impressed me about the play was that they incorporate a lot of different types of genre into it. I loved it; I was well entertained during the whole play!

My overall impression of play fest, it was amazing. I loved it. I got to meet a lot of new people, and I learned a lot from by just watching others perform. I had lots of fun! Not only cause I had an amazing cast but because it was my last play fest. I love my cast, as we have had some bumps in the road; we came together and did an outstanding job! As of everybody that took part in play fest, did a wonderful job! Everyone has definitely made this a year to remember!

- Tiffany

A swing dance performed by the Advanced Dance class in the spring concert at SCHS.

The NC Dept. of Public Instruction includes more than technique (Ballet, Modern and Jazz dance) and craft (the art of choreography) in the dance curriculum. In addition to technical skill development and choreographic design, the curriculum challenges students to learn about dance in different social settings and consider the impact they may have had on society.

This piece is the product of a two week study. My students had no previous instruction/background with swing dance and approached the newly exposed art form with great enthusiasm. They had a lot of fun dabbling in swing dance and were very creative with their choreographic approach.

A contemporary dance performed by the Advanced Dance class in the spring concert at SCHS.

The small group portions of the choreography were created by the students. They were challenged to use various levels and facings, contrast in time as well as intermediate level dance technique.