Beyond the Perry spotlights, theatre is competitive on and off the stage. Perry theatre company and drama club, troupe 7424, recently went to Phoenix to take part in the annual Arizona State Thespian Festival on Nov. 17-19. Schools from across the state travel to participate in this two-day festival which consists of a series of sessions in which thespians, actors and theatre technicians, go to various workshops or compete in individual or group events.

Mainstage performances were also available, leaving a variety of theatre-related activities to take part in. Perry theatre took 77 students to the festival to represent the school.The competitive theatre class competed in many events, including group musical, duet acting, solo and duo musical, and monologues. Tech also competed in costume design as well as lighting, which Arianna Fiandaca showcased in. For each event, there are three judges looking for aspects of the performance such as clarity, physicality, and believability. On a scale of 1-4, the thespian is either given fair, good, excellent, or superior, all of which are added up at the end to determine the final score of the event.

Junior Caleb Glenn competed in two group events (group musical and reader’s theatre) as well as a duo scene with junior Sarah Martino, in which they received overall superiors.

“We’re hoping to get straight superiors at CAFT. For the most part, the things we got marked down for were minimalistic blocking and diction, but these small things can drastically change their opinions,” Glenn says. “It all depends on the judges you get because they all have different opinions.”

They will compete most of the pieces again at the Central Arizona Festival of Theatre (CAFT) taking place Jan. 28. This will give Perry another opportunity to receive more points in hopes of claiming the ‘state champ’ title once again. After all the competitions, the scores will be combined to determine the champs, while Perry has the advantage of extra points from the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which no other Arizona school attends.

Perry is known to have a great theatre program, which is shown through the four consecutive years of being state champs. This would not be possible without Theatre teachers Shawn Marquis and Randy Duren, as well as former theatre teacher Jim Fountain.

“I really think Mr. Fountain laid a really strong foundation for the program ten years ago.” Principal Dan Serrano said. “That’s probably the main reason, he set the tone for that and kind of an expectation.”

Senior Hannah Kredit competed in one event at last year’s festival and competed yet again this year taking on four events for her final year competing. It made her recall the exact reason why she does it.

“The thrill of performing was so amazing. It just reminded me of why I do theatre. We’re all a family who understands each other and has the same passions.”