CA STATE THESPIAN FESTIVAL 2018

From March 28th-31st, 33 Los Al Drama students attended the CA State Thespian Festival at Upland High School.  Los Alamitos was honored at every turn, and represented Los Alamitos High School with dignity, professionalism, and grace.

Students competed in Individual Events (IE's), auditions, and took part in a variety of workshops.

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2018 CA STATE THESPIAN HONOR TROUPE
​After a lengthy application process outlining the work that the Los Al Drama Department, Troupe 7944 has done, which included work for "Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat", "Houston, We Have a Solution," the growth of our program and troupe, money raised for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, as well as letters of recommendation written by our own administration, Los Al Drama was name 2018 CA State Thespian Honor Troupe, a huge honor that is not even granted every year!

2018 SENIOR HONOR THESPIAN
After an application process and a live interview, Anna Baker was named the 2018 Senior Honor Thespian!

UNDERGRAD SCHOLARSHIPS
Louie Gallagher and Leah Schiffer (both sophomores) received Undergrad Scholarships after both an application and audition process.  These scholarships will help them pay for their trips to the International Thespian Festival this summer at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska.

LOS AL'S VERY FIRST STO
Junior Connor Franzen was elected to the 2018-2019 State Thespian Board as an STO (State Thespian Officer), making him the very FIRST STO from Los Alamitos High School.  He will work with the other STO's to organize all of the CA State Thespian Events for the 2018-2019 school year.  This includes an officer retreat, the Southern and Northern Leadership Festivals, the CA State Junior Thespian Festival, the Southern, Central, and Northern Play Festivals, and the CA State Thespian Festival.

PLAYWORKS
Senior Anna Baker's play, Exist to Exist, was chosen out of almost 30 original plays to be produced at the CA State Thespian Festival.  Junior Melanie Tanaka was then cast in Anna's play.  This play was staged in just 24 hours and was performed in front of over 1500 people at one of the All-Festival Events.

LOS AL THEATRE TECHNICIANS
Senior Shelby Marsh and junior Karina Salas were both chosen, after personal interviews and online applications, for the Scenic Art/Paint crew for the Closing Show, a full performance presented in 48 hours.

OPENING AND CLOSING SHOWS
Seniors Trinity Lane and Chloe Lim were chosen in advance, through online audition videos to perform (including a featured duet) in the Opening Show, which included musical numbers from the musical Matilda.  They had two rehearsals before they performed in front of the 1600 people festival.  Senior Micaela Erickson was chosen in advance, through online audition video, to perform in the Closing Show, a 40 minute song cycle called "The Theory of Relativity" for the entire festival.  

SHOWCASE
Entitled Geese,  Junior Connor Franzen and sophomore Louie Gallagher placed THIRD in showcase with the piece that they originally created for their LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) Exam, which also garnered them high marks.

BROADWAY CARES/EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation's leading industry-based HIV/AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. They fund the social service work of The Actors Fund and award grants to AIDS service organizations nationwide. 

After Los Al Drama's fundraising efforts (including a garage sale), Troupe 7944 placed FIRST in the amount donated to BC/EFA by school at the State Events!

I.E. EVENT FINALS
Making it to Finals with and IE placed students in the top 5% of all performers.  Out of over 2000 IE's that were performed at State, only 100 IE's are called back for Finals.

Our students who made it to finals were:
Connor Franzen/Macy Boren - Duet Musical
Louie Gallager/Micaela Erickson - Duet Acting
Melanie Takana - Monologues
Macy Boren - Monologues

IE EVENT SUPERIORS
Receiving a Superior in your IE is the highest score you can receive.  Earning a superior in your event qualifies students to take that same event to the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, NE this summer. 

Earned superiors this year are:
Marshall Davis/Shelby Marsh - Duet Musical
Connor Franzen - Monologues
Macy Boren/Connor Franzen - Duet Musical
Macy Boren - Monologues
Louie Gallagher/Micaela Erickson - Duet Acting
Micaela Erickson - Solo Musical
Melanie Tanaka - Monologues
Karina Salas - Costume Design
Rylee Burchett - Solo Musical

LOS AL DRAMA ROCKS!

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