Three Catholic high schools excel in theatrical competitions

Friday, Apr. 24, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — This year, students from all three Catholic high schools participated in the UHSAA State Theater competitions after qualifying at the regional championships. 

Juan Diegol CHS  

In the 3A Region 10 competition, Juan Diego Catholic High School placed first in One Act Play with “The Serpent.” In Contemporary Scene, Caroline May and Lucas Castro took first place with “Almost, Maine,” while Emily Harper and Max Harper took third place in “Daniel Rocket.” Third place in Classical Scene went to Brynn Duncan and Alison Stroud with “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” 

At the 3A UHSAA State Drama competition, Juan Diego’s “The Serpent” took first place in One Act and Best Ensemble. In addition, May and Castro placed third in Contemporary Scene for “Almost, Maine.”

Juan Diego also medaled with straight superior ratings in each round in Musical Theatre (Meghan Pollard and AllyShea Sexton), Dramatic Monologue (Ashley Schroader), and Classical Scene (Brynn Duncan and Alison Stroud, Nina Tita and Lindsey Coleman). 

The students’ win at the regional competition with “The Serpent,” written by Jean Claude van Itallie, was exceptional because they only had two weeks to rehearse, said Joe Crnich, JDCHS director of Theater Arts. “They were totally committed and fearless and I trusted them,” he said. 

Crnich selected “The Serpent” because the students had not been exposed to that type of script, and “I like the message,” he said. “It is about the Kennedy/King assassinations, violence, and that we keep doing this to ourselves and have been for a very long time, so we are either trying to stop the cycle or be aware of it as a race.” 

The play includes a Greek-style chorus of four women who comment on the scenes. JDCHS senior Meghan Pollard played in the chorus and learned from the script, she said. “You have to have a certain amount of knowledge in order to act out the situations; we gained insight of the Kennedy/King assassinations, Cain/Abel and Adam/Eve, so I focused on those events that made humanity what it is right now,” she said. “It was really cool to see where we’ve been, where we’ve come from and where we are going. It was complicated in terms of what we wanted to put emphasis on in our acting.”

Castro, a junior, played Kennedy as well as the parts of the serpent and Cain. “I had to understand these parts spiritually and intellectually,” he said. “I tried to understand Kennedy’s life and even though I only portrayed his death, I tried to understand what he was like. We watched the video of his assassination several times so I could understand the situation intellectually.” 

For the serpent, Castro was more creative, he said, adding that when it came to Cain he had to portray more anger and the spiritual aspect. “It opened my mind to whom is put at fault in certain situations, and where humans want to look in other situations, or how God might have reacted; it opened my mind to new ideas as to questioning and looking deeper into stories instead of just reading them.” 

JDCHS sophomore Brynn Duncan played Eve and found the character to be childlike in the script, she said. “She seemed happy with everything and engaged and playful with the serpent rather than having a dark being come and tell her to eat an apple,” she said. “I realize from playing Eve that it’s more complicated than the fall of humanity; she discovers she’s alive, realizes there is so much in the world, and after eating the fruit she discovers she is different. When I became Eve, I tried to get rid of stress and think everything was new and I didn’t know I could be sad; I tried to almost be clueless and unaware of bad things.” 

Judge Memorial CHS 

In 4A Region 6, JMCHS took third place. Senior Matt Krump won Best Supporting Actor in the One Act category with “The Long Christmas Dinner.” 

Advancing to state were Krump and Quinn Humlicek in Contemporary scene; Robin Young and Sam Housinger in Classical Scene; Pricilla Fehoko and Claire Cook in Dramatic Monologue; Janell Schroeder and Isabel Harris in Humorous Monologue, Sarah Weyrich in Musical Theatre; Averi Bailey and Bobby Lopez and Mark Brunetti and Kendall Schwieger in Pantomime. 

The one-act play was a class project in which the students were assigned roles, said Darin Hathaway, JMCHS theater director.

“The Long Christmas Dinner” by Thornton Wilder covers 90 years in a 30-minute performance. 

“The passage of time occurs through the dialog, so the judges or audience has to listen carefully to figure out its concept,” Hathaway explained. “The play was written in the 1930s, and the whole concept is that kids are born, grow up, have kids, and as much as time passes, everything stays the same.” 

Hathaway likes to choose plays that challenge the students not only as actors, but also intellectually, he said. “This play has an abstract quality to it,” he said. “In class we were working on the Meisner technique, an honest form of acting; they were having honest conversations. I also had to find a play with the exact number of people and gender in it. I was really pleased with the students’ performances and the way they handled the material.” 

During the 4A UHSAA State Competition, JMCHS’ Krump and Humlicek medaled with three superior ratings in One Act Play; Sarah Weyrich also received superior ratings in Musical Theatre. She advanced to the medal round but did not place. Isabel Harris medaled in Humorous Monologue with straight superior ratings. 

“Out of 30 schools we ranked in the middle; we are small in number,” said Hathaway. “Some of our students who qualified were unable to attend the state competition, and that hurts us as a team. The bigger schools usually tend to do a lot better.”

Krump and Humlicek performed “God’s Favorite” by Neil Simon for the state One Act competition. “It was about a man who has a hard life; he doesn’t feel like his family appreciates him, but he has a strong faith in God,” said Krump. “However, he begins to question his faith as his life gets harder; his son dies. God tests him as his faith is on its last bit of hope, so God sends a messenger to keep an eye on him.” 

Krump played the messenger and Humlicek played the father, Joe Benjamin.

“The scene we play is where these two meet and Joe tries to figure out who the messenger is,” said Krump. “I try to explain who I am and why I am here without giving myself away.” 

“Even though I am troubled, the part I play is quite comedic,” added Humlicek.

For the past two decades, the theater department at Saint Joseph Catholic High School has been a strong component of the school. 

“We have gained a regional reputation for producing incredible productions; students coming out of SJCHS are going into nationally ranked programs and pursing theater,” said Joanna Wheelton, St. Joseph Catholic Schools of Utah president. “Students are not only participating within the school, but are also performing in the local theater here in Ogden.” 

This year, Saint Joseph Catholic High School’s drama team won the 1A Region 18 championship and participated in the 1A UHSAA State Competition in Richfield April 9-11. They received superior ratings for One Act Play, Pantomime and Contemporary Scene and took fourth place in the UHSAA State competition. 

Freshmen Jackie Hammer and Ethan Hernandez each earned first place, and seniors Tim Schoof and Allie Bawdon took second.

Schoof and senior Jonathan Robbins presented “The Tempest” and “Singing in the Rain” at the 1A Utah Theater State competition. 

“We have been doing theater plays together since our freshman year. We won Best in State in Contemporary Scenes; and superior ratings in Pantomime and One Act Play,” said Schoof, who played in “Rabbit Hole,” in which parents lose their son and try to overcome their grief. He also performed a tap number in “Singing in the Rain.” 

“I tied for first place in Contemporary Scenes, and the tap number received a fourth place at state,” Schoof said. “I wasn’t really in it for the awards. I knew it would be my last state theater competition; I was more focused on camaraderie and teamwork. I saw it as a last big outing with my St. Joseph family.” 

Robbins and Schoof had lead parts in the regular school productions of “The Tempest” and “Singing in the Rain.”

“I played a clown in ‘The Tempest,’ and we performed it for the school on the west side back lawn and patio of the school,” said Robbins. “We used the space in a liberal and nontraditional way.”

Schoof played Prospero. 

“It was a big honor to play that role,” he said. “These two plays broke new ground for SJCHS. We wired a sprinkling system in the Black Box Theater for ‘Singing in the Rain,’ so when it rained, it actually rained and we had full tap numbers. Doing ‘The Tempest’ outside broadened my sense of what theater can be: presentation with art.” 

Robbins focused on the morals of the productions. In “The Tempest,” the moral was to “respect authority and to trust one another,” he said. In “Singing in the Rain,” the moral had to do with “not being prideful or vain,” he said. “Between the two we also switched from Shakespeare, where everything is majestic, to the 1950s, where everything was very quick, subtle and humorous.” 

“But, they had the commonality of being true to oneself, which is an important message to learn for a high schooler going into college,” added Schoof.