It’s time for the Utah High School Activities Association’s annual drama competition! The regional UHSAA One Act Festival took place on March 8, with Skyline Second Stage presenting their rendition of the Romancers. The regional UHSAA IE Drama Competition followed on March 9, where Skyline walked away with second place in sweepstakes, having an overall total of 1,600 points between all participants representing.

When asked about how One Acts went, theater teacher Michelle Yamazaki said, “It was really good. It was really competitive. Every school did really well and it was fun to watch everyone. We were the only comedic play, so that was fun, too, to be the comedic relief in [the competition] and we had a good time!” 

Despite it being a competition, Yamazaki wanted to remind students that the real goal of the competition is to have fun. “The best thing about drama comp is the time that the kids get to spend together,” she explains. Senior Grey Randle, who competed in both One Acts and IE in the Musical Theater category, shared the sentiment. “I have a lot of friends from Olympus and Highland, and to see them and some of them perform was so much fun,” he says.

The IE Competition started at 3:30, but students competing took a bus over to the hosting school, Olympus, two hours before due to bus scheduling conflicts. Mina Springmeyer, a 9th grader who competed in the Pantomime category, explains, “We got there early, and then we were given our numbers for [the competition and slating]. And then, once we had our numbers, we were sent off to find the rooms we would compete in.” Randle adds, “For your category, there’s three different rounds, three different judges. So, you perform your piece three different times and each time you get judged and you get ranked and you also find out, with the One Acts, how you did.”

The energy of participants before the competition showed their commitment to representing Skyline to the best of their abilities. “I was so nervous for the first one, but [Good Kid] is a very sad song, so I just kind of used the nerves to be… like, angsty,” Randle shares. Springmeyer adds, “We were all very focused, I feel. We were all kind of nervous, I’m sure. I know I was.” She went on to share the mood of contestants after the third round ended. “It was a lot of waiting and… you’re kind of anxious to know how it went.” Overall, the round that participating students felt best about was their last. “I think the third [round was my best],” Springmeyer says. Randle agrees: “Probably my third or second.”

After the excitement of the rounds, it wasn’t time to head home quite yet. “We had a couple hours while they tallied scores. Then at around… 8:30, we filed into the auditorium and there was an awards ceremony,” Springmeyer explains. When asked about how the ceremony went, Randle says, “Skyline… got second in sweepstakes. That means that out of all of the IEs and One Act points, we were second in our stage, which is such a big deal.” As one of the students advancing to state, he was quite pleased with his own personal outcome as well. “I got third in the Musical Theatre category, which is a huge deal for me. I was so shocked and so honored.” Springmeyer says, “After the awards ceremony, there was a lot of happiness and excitement and…  I think we were all fairly happy with what we did and what we went and accomplished.”

The students representing Skyline at the UHSAA drama competitions gave it their all and, most importantly, had a blast. The state competitions April 13, 14, and 15 in Provo and Spanish Fork didn’t prove as successful, but most participants still walked away with superior medals, making Skyline proud.