The school provides many opportunities for its students to prove themselves and compete to display what they have learned through their classes in school. The Drama Teachers Association of Southern California Competition, or DTASC, is one of them. It is an important event where theater students can show off their skills in hopes of winning special awards.
Held annually at different high schools across Southern California, hundreds of theater students gather to compete in categories such as Musical Theater, Small Screen, and Technical Theater categories such as lighting or set design.
The rules of DTASC are specifically designed to focus more on the students’ talents rather than fancy sets and costumes. Each acting category is allowed four chairs and simple monochrome costumes, with no props allowed.
This year, both intermediate and advanced theater classes from the school attended the event, competing in the following categories:
Acting:
- Small Screen
- Musical Theatre
- No Chairs
- Large Group Comedy
- Large Group Drama
- Audition Monologues
Technical Theater:
- Costume Design
- Set Design
- Lighting Design
The competition started bright and early at 9 a.m., with every category’s participants sharing their scene or presentation twice for different panels of judges. After a brief lunch break, semifinals were announced, narrowing each category by half. Judging, based on many criteria like staging and technique, used a point system to determine which groups advanced. The following groups moved on:
Acting:
- Small Screen
- Musical Theatre
- No Chairs
- Audition Monologues
Technical Theater:
- Set Design
- Lighting Design
Once again, the scenes and presentations were performed for different judges before the final round was announced. Only the top ten groups from each category moved on from the semifinals. Although none of the acting categories made it to finals, both tech categories made it, guaranteeing them a spot in the top ten.
After the finals, all participants of the festival gathered in the Royal Valley High School gym to receive awards. Adrenaline was running fast through the four students from the school.
Senior Ethan Rodda was one of two students who represented the school in the Lighting Design category by designing lighting arrangements for the horror play “The Exorcist.” He explained that so much work was put into his design, making him anxious to see if his design would win.
“I was nervous while waiting,” Rodda said. “I know how hard I tried, and I knew my work was good, but nothing compared to hearing our school being announced. It showed that all the hard work and dedication was worth it, because it finally paid off.”
Finally, it was revealed that the two lighting design students, senior Ethan Rodda and junior Kayla Balikyan-Davis, placed third overall for “The Exorcist,” while set design students senior Max Sandoval and junior Journee Joseph placed fifth overall for their set design of “Sweeney Todd.” The latter group’s set will be used in the same-named school play in the spring.
Sandoval shared that DTASC, although stressful at times, is a unique learning experience and a fun way to see other performing arts schools and students.
“Through DTASC, I learned how to design a set and learn the process of set design from sketch to stage,” Sandoval said. “At times, it was hard because we were also working on the fall production, which occurred only a week after the competition. But it was a very fun experience to learn about stage design ,and it was even more rewarding to place.”
Lighting designer Balikyan-Davis agreed that, through DTASC, students learn how to create professional style pieces.
“DTASC was a great opportunity to expand my skills in lighting design,” she said. “It was interesting to break down the script and see how we could convey the story through lighting alone. I was able to learn so much while collaborating with my partner. He was able to guide me through the process and allowed me to expand my knowledge.”
Although the theater students didn’t do as well as both they and teacher Mr. Justin Baldridge had hoped they would, they all agreed that it was a wonderful experience, and look forward to competing again next year.
“It was really great in class to watch all the students get into their performances and dedicate themselves to the competition,” Mr. Baldridge said. “On the day of the competition, we had a great time. It’s always great for students to watch other schools perform and to learn from them, and I was really happy that two of our tech groups walked away with trophies.”
Final scores:
Lighting Design: “The Exorcist” by Ethan Rodda and Kayla Balikyan-Davis: Third overall.
Set Design: “Sweeney Todd” by Max Sandoval and Jurnee Joseph: Fifth overall.
