By Staff
The Emmett High School drama team traveled to Burley for the State Drama Tournament on Saturday, Dec. 7. Five EHS students qualified at the district finals to compete at the state level in seven separate events. Competition events included humorous and serious categories with subdivisions of solo and ensemble, original or not. When the dust settled, Emmett proudly brought home one gold and two silver medals. As a team, Emmett placed fourth out of 44 competing schools, the highest Huskie thespians have ever placed.
The road to the state tournament began in the Alps, aka Paul Clowdus's drama classroom, still painted with scenes of the Austrian Alps from last year's musical The Sound of Music.
After months of preparation and hard work, 31 EHS Competitive Drama students went to the district finals, hosted on Nov. 23 by Eagle High School. Those 31 students competed in 25 events and earned 10 superior and 29 excellent ratings. Emmett placed fourth out of 17 schools.
Alyssa Martin and Gus Porter each earned first-place district championships with their entries. Martin performed "French Fries," a solo humorous piece, and Porter won for his original solo humorous "Goin' Fast" (written by student James Holcroft).
Martin scored again in a serious ensemble piece with Natalya Pylpypchak. They won second place with a scene from Anastasia. Porter, along with Brent Houston also placed second with the comedy ensemble piece from Neil Simon's Sunshine Boys. Another second-place win was Pylpypchak with her original solo serious presentation entitled "Choirs." Coming in with third-place showings were Maggie Hodges in an original solo serious piece entitled "Gone" and Houston with a scene (solo humorous) from No Time for Sergeants.
These five then qualified for the state tournament. Perfor-ming the same pieces, the Huskie team held nothing back. Martin and Pylpypchak's solo events, "French Fries" and "Choirs," advanced to the semi-finals, but did not medal. However, they took a silver medal in their ensemble Anastasia piece. Houston and Porter won a silver with their Sunshine Boys. And Gus Porter earned the state championship title for the original solo humorous "Goin' Fast."
Clowdus has been taking drama teams to competitions for five years. Always proud of his students, he said this year's performances were "exceptional." Judging from the energy and decibel level of the team's response, they seemed to agree.