Blackfoot High School sent our talented theater students to the State Drama Competition this past weekend! At State Drama, unlike many of our other state competitions, competitors will go head to head with every qualified student in the state, regardless of divisions like 1A, 5A, and so on. With that in mind, five of our students were able to place in the top 3 in their two respective categories, proving themselves the best in the entire state!
Ansley Weaver (12) and Megan Black (12) placed 2nd overall in the Ensemble Humorous category.
Claire Baker (12), Lizette Gamino (12), and Natalie Whitehead (12) placed 3rd overall in the Pantomime category.
Blackfoot High School placed 4th in the 5A division, beating out 11 other schools.
All of these state-goers poured hours upon hours into their pieces, practicing and fine tuning them to perfection.
When asked about what went into practicing and creating her pieces, Black said, “Hundreds of hours, we’d use our 2nd hour, which was our Drama Competition hour, and most days we would go and practice our pieces for at least 30-45 minutes, every day, and we’d would get together on weekends or days we didn’t have school.”
Many of the pieces were also original, meaning that the students wrote them on their own. Baker, Whitehead, and Gamino all described the writing process of the pantomime that won 3rd, explaining how they incorporated elements of betrayal and were able to represent the process of rowing a boat, hoisting a treasure chest, and even sword fighting, all without props or dialogue.
Jaden Yancey (12) also wrote an original piece, which he explained was heavily inspired by a video game he plays with his friends, over which they have accumulated a series of jokes that he incorporated into the act.
Kimball Williams (10) said “Jaden wrote the entire original humorous in six hours, on a bag of Skittles, and sheer determination.”
State Drama is no walk in the park, and can be very stressful for the students. Molly Whyte (11) described how she got sick, stunting her ability to practice, which was a major setback for her. Also, Weaver, the president of the Drama Club, detailed an instance during State of how she was triple entered, meaning that within the same hour she had to perform all three of her state pieces. Thankfully, both of them were able to overcome their difficulties and proceed in their endeavors.
Along with being an event to showcase their talents and hard work, State Drama was also an opportunity to have fun. Several of the participants expressed how they enjoyed watching the other pieces being performed and how they loved being able to spend time with their friends.
Jake Spjute, who is these students’ coach, said that he felt that Blackfoot High School did really well at State. He said that “just watching them [the students] perform, and watching them have joy in their performances, and being able to witness that is by the far the best part [of the event].”
Again, our school got 4th in our division, and all of the students, not just our medalists, contributed to that, so don’t forget to congratulate these talented individuals!
All of those who qualified were; Quincy Abercrombie, Emma Arnold, Claire Baker, Audrey Baker, Amber Barbre, Megan Black, Tyson Corry, Caden Corry, Lizette Gamino, Charlee Gardener, Kaitlyn Hall, Tayvian Hamilton, Mehki Hoge, Matthew Hone, Kaysia Horne, Gus Huntley, Ash Ingram, Jason Jenson, Kieran Mccarthey, Sophia Mecham, Lia Mortensen, Macey Simmons, Isaiah Vialpondo, Ansley Weaver, Natalie Whitehead, Molly Whyte, Braxton Williams, Kimball Williams, and Jaden Yancey.
