Students place first at Ohlone Theater festival

Juniors Trevor Meyer and Kim Chatterjee, senior Joyce Bishop, junior Lindsay McCargar, senior Michael Kinson and junior Zach Dawson perform their winning Mini-Musical.

by Brynna Evans

The 2009 Ohlone Theater Festival was full of amazing performances. Forty-five students WHS and 22 students competed. The various events included acting, singing, dancing, improvisation, design, technical theater and video production.

Before all the performances started, they had the mornings opening rally in the gymnasium. There were students from Ohlone’s drama department, including Washington alum Matthew Horry.

“I take kids every year because it is the most intense educational theater experience I could offer them,” drama teacher Matthew Ballin said.

Performances took place in classrooms all over the campus. Each performance lasted around one hour.

During the competition, the performers have up to three judges in each room, grading them on different subjects, such as sound, memorization and characterization.

The WHS performers won first place in the Mini-Musical category for their production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Performers included seniors Joyce Bishop and Michael Kinson and juniors Zach Dawson, Trevor Meyer, Kim Chatterjee and Lindsay McCargar. Meyer also won an award for the Men’s Contemporary Humorous Monologue.

“Anyone can watch any competition when they are not actually competing. But most importantly, students may end up with from four to twelve written critiques of their work from theater professionals from throughout the Bay Area,” Ballin said.

In the children’s theater category, the Irvington Conservatory Theater Program entered senior Andrew Kimberlin from WHS and seniors Colleen Clayton and Elizabeth Nye from Irvington in a joint production of Alice in Wonderland. Also, in Irvington’s cast for Grease was sophomore Mario Rappa, who won third place along with Irvington.

“It was a lot of fun getting to see other school’s performances, and getting to compete against them. I made a lot of friends that I won’t soon be forgetting. And You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown won first place,” Meyer said.