Today was the 5th annual Garcia Theatre Project One-Act Play Festival at USC Aiken.  Our school performed Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart.”

Our students were awesome and the lady behind me said “we were robbed” when we didn’t win best play.  I said, “Thank You,” but agreed with the judges that our rival school, Ridge Spring Monetta High, deserved the Best Play award.  Their two actresses were amazing.

Aiken HS and North Augusta High also performed, and Aiken High’s play, “Girl Town,” won runner up.   As for Wagener-Salley and our students, Samuel Leguizamon received Best Actor, Eden Wells received a special award for Best Sound Crew, and our play received Best Set Decoration & Costumes.  The judges also had lots of praise for our efforts to tackle a literary play and the fact that we (Mrs. Shaffer and I) adapted the story ourselves.  They were MOST impressed that Sam was able to memorize and DELIVER the basically, 15 minute monologue without any mistakes.  As I said, this is the fifth year that we’ve competed in the festival and that I co-sponsored our school’s drama club.  Each year we (and by we, I mean the drama club students as well as us sponsors) continue to grow, and while we didn’t receive the coveted best play, I think we did darn well!   I’m proud of all of the students (both ours and those from the other schools) and believe that they are all winners.  Also, shout out to Mrs. Jean Pesce, who did an outstanding job on our costumes!  That woman is amazing!  Who knew you could turn gold buttons to silver by covering them in aluminum foil?  Or should I say, I never would have thought of that!

Thanks again to Mr. & Mrs. Carlos Garcia, USC Aiken & the Performing Arts faculty, Public Education Partners, Aiken County Public Schools, and this year’s additional sponsors: RCS Corporation, the American Association of University Women, URS Washington Division, and Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC for their support and recognition of the need for theatre and the arts in public education.

Final shout out to Natalie Fox, aka. Organizer Extrodinaire, and Diane Mangiante of PEP – thank you for all you do for Aiken schools and for continuing to organize the GTP festival each year.