Courtesy of Sahaana Chitrapura

Junior Sahaana Chitrapura performs in a student-written play at the California State Thespian Festival.

From March 13-15, 13 drama club members traveled to Pomona College in Southern California to attend the California State Thespian Festival. Students submitted “thespy” self-tapes — technical or performance based pieces — to the competition. Seniors Ben Davies, Patrick Keogh and Nila Venkataratnam received callbacks and performed their acting pieces in person to the judges at the festival. 

At the festival, thespians attended workshops, watched featured performances and had opportunities to perform themselves. Junior Sahaana Chitrapura was one of almost 100 students who auditioned for Playworks, student-written and directed plays. 

Prior to the festival, students submit scripts to a short play they wrote for the opportunity to perform it in a staged reading at the festival. On the first day of the festival, students auditioned and received casting notice later that evening. They quickly started rehearsing and performed the play on the third and final morning of the festival. 

Chitrapura performed in a play titled “We Were Sleepover Girls,” which followed five middle school girls as they struggled through the growing pains that come with transitioning to high school. 

“It was really cool to work with a group of people I’d never met and put together a show,” Chitrapura said. “We only rehearsed for about five hours, but that gave us a sense of urgency that actually made it a more fun and rewarding experience. I was really proud that we managed to perform without any mistakes.”

On-campus festival features student works

After returning, drama students joined their peers in the Thermond Drama Center for the department’s annual New Works Festival on March 20 and 21, which features plays written, directed and acted by SHS students. 

This year’s show featured 11 student-written plays and one original music piece. Sophomore Maya Proffitt co-wrote a play in her creative writing class and submitted the piece to the New Works Festival.

“It’s a very cool experience as a creative writing student to be able to get our scripts to people who process and act in them. I think it’s pretty interesting and it definitely takes our writing further to know that it will have a future purpose in the community,” Proffitt said.

Auditions for the festival were held in February, and directors held rehearsals with their casts throughout February and March.

Junior Saachi Saraf, president of the Drama Club, organized and acted in the show.

“New Works is an incredible way to support the SHS drama program and connect with the community,” Saraf said. “The whole event is completely student run and is a fun way for students to showcase their talents. Everyone puts a lot of work into it and it’s super fun and interesting to watch.”

New Works participants included:

 Student crew: Ben Davies, Larry O’Brien, Saachi Saraf, Evangelina Stepanchenko, Gauri Vaidya and Nila Venkataratnam. 

Playwrights: Aditya Cheethirala, Ananya Karthik, Carolin Klets, Leila Mansour, Maya Proffitt, Kiana Saadieh, Tanvee Tirthapura, Emily Troy and Fiona Wang. 

Directors: Ria Abraham, Aditya Cheethirala, Sahaana Chitrapura, Dhriya Darji, Ben Davies, Makenna Parris and Ella Porter . 

Actors: Tessie Berger, drama teacher Ben Brotzman, Aditya Cheethirala, Sahaana Chitrapura, Anika Kalia, Andrey Mokhnatkin, Makenna Parris, Ella Porter, Saachi Saraf,  Emily Troy and Nila Venkataratnam.