ICS Students Perform at Utah Shakespeare Festival

By Becky Schumacher, high school english faculty and lead teacher

This past September, our high school theater conservatory class attended the Utah Shakespeare Festival to compete in the Shakespeare Competition in Cedar City, UT. The festival itself is widely known in Utah as well as the United States as one of the premier festivals celebrating not only the works of the bard, but also the world of drama. The competition provides high school students the opportunity to observe peer and professional performances and be evaluated and adjudicated by professionals in the fields of drama and dance.

Our students started their Shakespeare journey as soon as school commenced this year. Each student auditioned with a Shakespeare monologue. Theater Director Tess Tally, along with her daughter, Heather Geertgens, then selected and assigned students to various roles and competitive events. Heather brought her experience as a former Shakespeare festival competitor to act as our resident expert and coach. Her knowledge was incredibly valuable as our students went into the competition as rookies, facing 3,000 other students.

Students rehearsed during conservatory class as well as after school to prepare for events in the theater ensemble event, duo, trio as well as two dance events, the duet and ensemble. Three of our students competed in the monologue competition as well. The festival began on Thursday, September 29. Theater mom and trip coordinator extraordinaire, Kim Heiple, arranged and organized all travel accommodations. She brought together a network of theater parents who willingly gave of their time and energy to support our students in their creative endeavors. Upon arriving at the festival, our students watched the Southern Utah University players’ performance of Macbeth. Friday morning saw students out at the crack of dawn for the competitions–dance, theater ensemble, duos, trios, and monologues–all scattered around campus and at various times. Students had to navigate costumes and props, while hurrying from performance to performance. And our ICS performers were ready. They acted and danced, never cracking under the pressure. They spoke well, moved well, responded to feedback, made changes, showed incredible poise and ability, and celebrated each other’s gifts and talents in a Christ-like manner. They were truly a light, taking any chance they had to speak and offer encouragement to competitors from other schools and showing up at each other’s competitions as an audience of support. The competitions spanned both Friday and Saturday, and on Friday night our group was able to catch the Festival performance of Clue. As the competition ended on Saturday afternoon October 1, we headed home–happy with our performance, grateful for the new experience, and maybe more than a little exhausted.

But what an amazing experience for our theater students! And in our rookie season we put up some impressive stats, placing 6th overall. The competition itself was indeed valuable.The preparation and execution of performances in a venue that was not the ICS Blackbox Theater as well as receiving and responding to adjudication from trained professionals was something that our students were so blessed to be a part of–and also…it was so so fun! We are looking forward to heading back next year with a little more experience under our belts.