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CHS Thespians play a big role at state festival Though this year’s California State Thespian Festival was held in Ontario, Claremont was the city in the spotlight. The Ontario Convention Center became the Claremont High School Thespian Troupe 2129’s stage for a memorable 3-day effort resulting in the group winning more awards than any other participating school during the weekend of April 3-5. Claremont’s strong efforts in over 20 events made the Thespian Troupe the class of a festival featuring more than 1100 high school Thespians, from 65 high schools throughout California. “They did extremely well and this was a very good year,” said Krista Elhai, CHS Theater Director. “We’ve had years where we didn’t do as well and we had years where we barely qualified. They did very well.” As a school, CHS had more than 20 Thespians perform Cats on the mainstage, 13 Thespians selected to work on the All-California Production technical crews, 9 Thespians selected to perform in the All-California Production on the mainstage and 6 Thespians receive a superior rating (top one percent in the state). Claremont earned 2nd place in the Scenefest category for its presentation of Cats. Individually, CHS finished the festival with 2 first place winners (Meg DesCombes – Stage Management, Amy clark - Solo Musical Performance), 2 second place winners (Melissa Kramer – Costume Construction, Dylan Elhai – Tech Challenge) and 4 third place winners. Amy's win earned her a $750 senior scholarship in theater performance, while Meg earned a $500 scholarship towards a summer theater program. Meg was recognized for outstanding crew work with fellow Thespian Maggie Guillen. “It went really well,” said Meg, who received a superior rating in Stage Management. “I felt like I did well on stage management and I’m very proud of that because of the time and preparation that went into that. It was probably the best award I won because it took the most work.”
Falling asleep at one point with a paintbrush in hand after hours of painting, Meg took delight in the crew work throughout the weekend. “As funny as it sounds, I really enjoyed painting and I learned a new method called ‘stippling,’” she said. “One of my favorite moments was when we had an all-festival event. I had been painting before and after the event and I got called up for my scholarship while covered in a lot of paint.” One of the highlights of the festival was the induction of actress Marilu Henner into the CHS Thespian Troupe 2129 as an honorary Thespian. Ms. Henner was the keynote speaker of this year’s festival. “You could tell that she knew what she was talking about,” said CHS junior Andrew Steinsapir. “She was really cool and I had a chance to talk to her after her workshop. She was really nice and gave us some good advice. One thing that stuck with me was when she said that if we are complaining about not getting a part, then we’re really not mature enough for that part.” Along with being elected to the 2009-10 California State Student Thespian Board, Andrew and fellow junior Katie Schiff earned callbacks in the Monologues category. They went on to finish with superior ratings in the event, while simultaneously qualifying for a spot on the mainstage of the All-California Production. After being unable to compete at last year’s festival, Katie was pleased with her competitive debut nearly 2 weeks ago. “This was the first year I was allowed to compete,” she said. “It was amazing and so much fun. I had seen it all last year but I wasn’t able to compete. The weekend is too short. You don’t sleep and you don’t eat. You’re running on adrenaline and after it’s over, you miss the stress of it.” —Landus Rigsby |
