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.

Our students were on the front page of the Aiken Standard newspaper this morning!  You can read the article and see a picture of my students here.  My only complaint is that they forgot to include one of our students, Demetrius Brown, who also received an All-Star Cast Member award.

For months now Mrs. Shaffer, my co-sponsor for the drama club, and I have been pushing, prodding, pleading, and begging our drama students to show up for rehearsals, memorize their lines, and learn their blocking. We’d pretty much given up fighting them for their time, attention, and their senioritis. We decided to give them free reign to sink or swim, as we couldn’t keep fighting them. Despite the fact that they “didn’t bring it” during rehearsals and their ostensible lack of commitment, I need to learn to have more faith.

I have the pleasure of saying all of my frustration and the students’ hard work have paid off.

Today was the Garcia Theatre Project, USC Aiken One-Act play festival and we racked up the awards. Out of five participating schools and dozens of performers, our ENTIRE cast received All-Star Cast Member awards. One cast member also received a Best Narrator award. Our play received Best Costumes, Best Technical/Use of Set, AND … drum roll please…BEST PLAY!

A bit of background: None of the Aiken County high schools have drama programs as part of the school curriculum. Four years ago, the Garcias, Public Education Partners, and USC Aiken teamed up to provide a grant for Aiken high schools to produce a one-act play and perform at the newly organized festival. Participating schools receive a monetary grant, set pieces, and mentoring. A year or two before, my school had started a “drama club” that was hardly worth the name. I can say this as I was the sponsor and, having absolutely no experience in theatre or drama, I had no idea what direction to take the club.

Thanks to the Garcia Theatre Project, not only did we actually produce a play that first year, we also began learning the ins and outs of theatre. Each year our school has steadily improved our performances and productions. Last year 2/3rds of our cast received All-Star Cast Member awards and our play won 2nd place for best play. This year, my students totally blew all of my expectations. I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling yet. I cannot be more pleased with my students–they continually surprise and amaze me.