December - Giles High School

Thespian ThrowdownBy Ben Dillon and Marti Williams“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merelyplayers” goes the famous quote of William Shakespeare. Yet forGiles High’s drama competition team led by director ElishaJohnson, the world literally does revolve around a stage, andeveryone from the actors to the unit crew indeed performs insome way or another. For most, just the thought of doing astandard school play seems like a tough challenge, what withmemorizing lines, assembling the set, handling props and techdevices and of course getting in front of a packed audiencefilled with judgmental high schoolers.But for the competition team, it gets even harder than that.Imagine getting in front of an audience who’s job it is to judgeby waiting for someone to screw up a line or forget a sceneentrance, all while making sure the performance doesn’t go overa certain time limit. That’s right: in competition drama, you’reTaylor McCroskey portrays the role of a concerned doctor for performance is not only judged, it’s timed. But of course ourhis patient Elizabeth Jones and her roommate Cassidy Ayers. performers would not be taking on this challenge if they didn’tenjoy it.For the past semester, the team has done rehearsal after rehearsal for theirselected play The Last Leaf, going for no less than absolute perfection beforeperforming at districts. At districts, the team, as they expected, chewed up thecompetition by finishing in second. However, the crew and players knew theycouldn’t get too cocky, for the infamous upcoming region meet would prove tobe a far greater challenge, as our performers had seen in the past.Last year, under the veteran drama director Barbara Scheid, the team wasfortunate enough to advance past the region competition and have a rare shot atthe State, which althoughthey did not win, provedhow high the team couldreach. This year, however,the team fell short.Although one signatureplayer, Taylor McCroskey,Hannah Blankenship takes on the role asMr. Behrman, the friendly neighbor, to helpleading lady Elizabeth Jones with her illness.Cassidy Ayes and Aaron Bane rehearsescene by scene at the practice right beforethe Regional Competition.secured an Outstanding Actor award, the team as a whole was not able to makeit past regions, finishing fourth behind some tough challengers including theever-present menace Radford.Somewhat surprisingly, many in the group seemed to be content with justhaving fun with their friends while doing their best at putting on a performance.Next year the team will be losing some key players like senior Elena Anderson;perhaps some talented new blood will enter into Giles’ thespian pool, makingtheir chances of going to State again a little bit higher. Better luck next year, castand crew!4