Coming back from winter break, the drama department was almost immediately busy once again, with the Nebraska State Thespian Festival taking place January 8-10, and the auditions for the spring musical “Legally Blonde” happening quickly after.
Hosted at the Holland Performing Arts Center, the Thespian Festival celebrates high school theater students and educators, giving them a stage to perform their shows and see other schools from around the state perform as well.
Westview students were also able to see other schools’ performances, like Papillion-Lavista’s “Ride the Cyclone” and Lincoln Southwest’s “Bright Star.”
“I thought it was great to see what other high school’s talents are, because Lincoln schools are amazing at musical theater. So, with them bringing a show, it’s always so cool to see, and I’ve never even heard about Papillion, and they were great,” Paisley Beck, 11, vice president of the theater department, said.
The festival was also an opportunity for the drama department to compete and be recognized for their talents. The students attending the festival spend the first semester of the school year preparing for what they’ll show during the event.
“We had students that did monologue, we had students that did technical competition, and then we had our improv team,” said Anthony Schik, Westview’s drama teacher.
Ellie Briggs, 12, was given a superior rating and qualified for the international thespian festival, the Improv team competed and came seventh in state, and the troupe as a whole was named as a gold honor troupe, something given to only nine schools across the state, for the third year in a row.
Schik said it was incredible to be recognized as an honor troupe again.
“The first year we got it, I was absolutely floored since we were just a second-year program,” Schik said. “We’re continuing to demonstrate the high-level quality of what we’re doing for productions, but also what we’re doing behind the scenes and what we’re doing in our community, what we’re doing to further education, fundraising… We’re really hitting all the marks, which is awesome for a young program.”
Coming off the festival, drama’s busy schedule also carried to their work back home at Westview.
Auditions for the spring musical “Legally Blonde” take place January 13 and 15 after school. Schik says that one of the main differences from this and other productions that theater has done is the dynamic roles.
“What I love about this show is it actually has roles that are available for people who don’t necessarily sing, but maybe really enjoy to dance or maybe just enjoy acting,” he said. “It really features a lot more diverse talent in that way.”
The musical will wrap up auditions after this week, and from then on, focus on practicing with their cast and tech crew until the show dates, April 10, 11, and 12.
