The Theatre Company will be making their annual trip to the Utah Shakespeare Competition, rivalling other schools from around the country to celebrate Shakespearean language and culture.

Thespians from the company will compete in monologue, duo scene, group scene, choreography, and improv competitions – all Shakespeare themed – while six tech engineers participate in a timed tech olympics.

The trip will take place during fall break under the direction of theatre teacher Randy Duren. He appears eager to return to the festival and bring honor to the school’s name.

“We have done really well in improv, but we usually place somewhere in the middle in every other event. I think we’re getting better,” he said. Duren stays consistently impressed with Utah schools’ performances. “They know Shakespeare,” he admits.

Also supervising the festivities will be theatre teacher Shawna Marquis. After six years of attendance, she has noticed a trend in quality post-competition.

“We see an improvement after the competition. It gets us ready for the rest of the year and for all of our other competitions,” she said. Marquis and the rest of theatre seek to exemplify the warranted and slightly overused adage ‘practice makes perfect.’

Keeping consistent with the Elizabethan Era theme, junior Sarah Martino choreographed a Shakespearean routine to perform in the dance competition.

“Last year when we competed… we centered the dance around the ghost haunting scene from the play Richard III. This year the dance is based off the masquerade ball scene, but we are putting a 1950s twist to it,” said Martino.

The idea of taking a Shakespeare play and giving it a modern connotation can be compared to theatre’s most recent production, Twelfth Night, which blended old English dialogue and pompous 1920s culture. A large group will perform a scene from this play at the competition as well.

The school’s tech group will have an opportunity to prove their skills in series of deceivingly difficult challenges.

“They do light rigging, costume changing, and anything related to the backstage aspect of theatre. Sometimes they have to sew on buttons and sometimes they have to hang and focus a light,” said Duren.

The different performances throughout the competition will display the school’s talented and progressive theatre department while allowing growth for future productions and competitions this year.