On Saturday, October 21st, the LACES theater class headed to Royal High School for the Varsity Division Fall Festival put on by the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California (DTASC). DTASC hosts theatrical competitions that encompass all of Southern California high school theater students. DTASC is a network where theater teachers and students can communicate ideas, share resources, and show their theater skills. Their mission statement includes, “The corporation supports and rewards hard work, and commitment to the discipline of theater and education.”
Acting and tech were the two categories students participated in. For the tech entry, two set designers from LACES designed a set from the movie Carrie and two costume people designed costumes from the classic play Dr. Faustus.
LACES participated in four different acting categories. The first was an “Audition Piece” with two people doing two monologues. Another category is “Ten Best Theatrical Plays,” where every school picked one play. This was the most competitive category, and the schools typically choose their best actors for this section.
“I chose four people to put in that group; Holden Weisler, Connor Channel, Jade Menéndez, and Danielle Ben Solomon. They faced fierce competition,” said LACES theater teacher Ms. Lori Stanley.
10th grader, Louise Withey, shared her personal experience in this year’s competition. “DTASC was a super fun experience for the whole theater company class! I participated in TV Adaptation, which was one of the two scenes that were entered into the semi-finals. We also got top ten for costumes. I’m so proud of everyone, and their hard work paying off!”
The last category was “Large Group Comedy,” which had six people, and was a British farce. They had to maintain British accents through the whole thing, with lots of fast talking and physicality. There was a new category this year called TV Adaptation, where students adapted a television episode and cut it down to 5 minutes. LACES theater did The Handmaids Tale.
“Everyone in the theater class, grades 10-12, participated in DTASC. We did after-school rehearsals, and every group had a certain day they worked.” Stanley said.
While the program worked on their entries for DTASC, they were also preparing for their in-school play. It is an SNL sketch comedy parody of Brothers Grim fairy tales.
