Photo By: Shelby Clemons
CHARACTERS: Poly’s theater department scores big at CSUSB’s High School Theater Festival.
By Kira Roybal, Staff Writer
Imagine that you only have 90 seconds to impress a judge. There are no do-overs, so your act must be spotless. These are the pressures that the students from Poly’s theater department face at annual theater festival competitions. Each contestant has one and a half minutes to dazzle two judges with their stage presence, emotion and adherence to the chosen script. The Festivals are invitation-only events, so each participating school’s theater department is expected to be in tip-top shape.
The theater department represented Poly at California State University San Bernardino’s High School Theater Festival on March 15. The competition concluded with a bang as two of Poly’s participants, Gabriel Pereyra (11) and Jace Brown (12), placed in the top six for the monologue presentation category.
A theater festival is similar to other competitions; the main difference is that instead of passing a football or shooting a free throw, the participants present monologues and dialogues on stage. There are also rules and regulations. For example, a contestant’s chosen script must come from a published play. Theater-buff judges scrutinize every word spoken, checking for precision, clarity and charisma. Because the judges are well-versed in plays (especially the more renowned ones), contestants usually perform monologues and dialogues from lesser known plays. It’s a little theater festival secret.
Pereyra did not take advantage of this secret his freshman year. He attempted to perform a monologue from Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” an intellectually and emotionally challenging piece for an actor. Pereyra explained that he completely misunderstood the context of this dramatic monologue, which resulted in a low score from the ever-watchful judges. This time around, he redeemed himself. Pereyra performed Dante’s monologue from the comedic play “Promedy” by Wade Bradford; his character tries to convince the school board to do away with prom. His acting certainly did not go unrewarded. Pereyra’s performance, even though he only rehearsed it the day prior, placed in the top three overall high scores for the monologue category. “It’s nice to be able to pretend to be somebody else for a little bit and, at the same time, tell a story to its fullest,” Pereyra said.
Moving away from comedy and toward drama, Brown performed Montresor’s opening monologue from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” which depicts his vengeful character’s plan to destroy Fortunato, an acquaintance. “I like dramas. They keep people on edge,” Brown said. Though he has only been honing his performing arts skills since freshman year, Brown was one of the top six highest-scoring contestants in the monologue competition.
“I had already been cast as [Montresor] in our fall production, ‘Sleepy Hollow and Other Scary Stories,’ so this gave me a chance to expand on it,” Brown said.
Attending theater festivals is like a family event for the closely-bonded students in the theater department; it is a mix of support and competition. The team sits in the audience to cheer on friends while they are performing. However, once they get on stage, the members know they are also competing against their family – their theater family.
Whether participants choose to perform a monologue or a dialogue, a drama or a comedy, each contestant is there for one reason: to not only emotionally move the judges, but also embody a character. “A lot of people think acting is just imitation, and that’s not the case. You need to able to bring a little bit of yourself into the character,” Pereyra said.