TEXARKANA, Texas - Pleasant Grove High School's theater troupe won the silver medal at the state's One Act Play competition Thursday, marking the best showing ever for the school's student thespians.
In addition to the student team achieving second place overall in their UIL 4A competition, Clayton Jones was selected to the All Star Cast and both Emily Mowery and Michael McNeal were selected to the Honorable Mention All Star Cast.
"There are eight plays that make it to the state contest. One-hundred-eighty-eight schools started this process back in January. We were state finalists, which means we were in the Elite Eight," said Debby Sutton, director of theatre at PGHS. "They ranked those eight from one to number eight, and we were ranked number two in the state, so we are the silver medal winner."
It's the highest they've achieved in school history in their five times at the state competition. The theater director says her students overcame a lot of adversity in recent weeks, such as personal losses and a stomach virus.
"The biggest thing is they kept digging," she said.
About the individual achievements, Sutton said, "We were honored to get three of those 18 medals," noting that's a great accomplishment with only eight schools attending.
The PGHS Curtain Call Productions troupe headed south to the San Antonio area for the competition, performing "The Voice of the Prairie" by John Olive on Wednesday and hearing the good news Thursday evening.
The play they performed was a full-length play they cut to competition size, no longer than 40 minutes. "That's part of the process, you live and die by the stopwatch," Sutton said. They had to create a design concept for the set, costumes, lighting - "you design the entire package."
Then they had to hustle when they got to the competition, having only 55 minutes to set up in the space with only 15 minutes to don costumes and warm up.
"Then we took the stage and competed," Sutton said. Post-performance they were critiqued by the head judge, and Sutton said he was very impressed with the show.
The Curtain Call Productions team persevered through personal challenges in the last two months to earn those positive kudos.
"This is a very unique group of kids. We have had some adversity this semester. This company of 24 kids and three directors have lost 10 family members and friends since the first week in March," Sutton said, adding that the adversity started the week they went to the district contest.
Then there's the everyday teenager stuff to deal with, Sutton said.
"I kept telling the kids, 'Guys, keep digging, keep digging. We're going to be here, we're going to support each other, we're going to love each other through the tough times. Keep digging, we can do this.' Because they are truly a very special and magical group of kids," Sutton said. "They've hugged each other and cried and supported each other, and have attended funerals and visitations. And been there for each other and listened, and just loved each other, and kept our singular goal in mind."
It's been an amazing semester, Sutton said, describing her crew as tenacious.
"They're a tough bunch of kids," Sutton said, noting in August they started with the goal of a state championship. Everything since was done with that goal in mind.
"It's been a whole year," Sutton said.
They were still in Schertz, Texas, on Thursday and watched the awards ceremony from their hotel room, setting up music and lighting with the students dressed up for the occasion. On Friday, they were set to travel home but also have fun and let off some steam in Rockwall.
"We put the webinar up on the big screen and they called it all out to us," Sutton said about hearing the great news, noting of her students, "They're having a pretty good week."
(On the Net: Facebook.com/pghstheatre.)