4 x 4 for
Yosemite High drama
YHS receives superiors year after year at prestigious drama festival
Carol McCarty, a Yosemite High drama student
takes a stroll during a lunch break at the Mother Lode Drama Festival while her
team mates skip rocks and sunbathe.
The drama team comes together for a final photo. FRONT — Ginny Corless, Brie Solaegui
and Jordan Huizing. MIDDLE — Matt
Montgomery, Caroline McCarty, Travis Costell, Karin Scott. BACK — Kerry McNeff, Corina Malcom, Ron Huizing, Caitlin Hansard,
Ben Buckarama.
Every year
as warm spring days coax sundresses and shorts out from the back of the closet,
the best high school theater groups in Northern California gather for a weekend
of camaraderie and competition called the Mother Lode Drama Festival.
For the
past 30 years, Amador High School in Jackson has played host to what has become
the most prestigious theater festival
in Northern California.
Yosemite
High School has attended the past 15 years of the festival with incredibly
favorable results. So favorable, in fact, that with this year’s ratings,
Yosemite High drama is the only school in the state to receive four superiors
for four years in a row.
Each high
school attending the festival has the opportunity to compete in four
categories: female monologues, male monologues, scenes and one-act plays.
Monologues
and scenes go through four qualifying rounds and then award are given for
first, second and their places. The one-act plays are rated by three judges and
then given an award of either good, excellent or superior. Attending schools
range from the small, rural Amador High School to the large, urban Tamalpais
High.
A little too early on the morning of
April 27, the Yosemite High School Players gathered in the staff parking lot as
theater instructor Ron Huizing ran through the field-trip roster.
Before departing on our four-hour drive, we
threw our arms around each other for a group picture, squinting in the
early-morning light. We smiled at the camera with naive pride, and the joy that
only seems to accompany road trips with the closest of friends. Four hours of
winding road later, we arrived at Amador High for the start of the Mother Lode
Drama Festival.
After the
introductory ceremony, was the first round of monologue and scene competition.
In the burnt-orange hallways of Amador High, dozens of high school students
chattered nervously. Clumps of people, segregated by school, patted each other
on the back and wished one another luck.
To the
untrained eye, the space might have looked like a meeting of some strange cult.
People were stretching, making all sorts of faces and talking to themselves.
However, at a drama competition, none of this is out of place. The room
temperature rose at least 10 degrees in 15 minutes from all the nervous
excitement. Every smile was laced with apprehension and anticipation. Every
smile, that is, except Matt Montgomery’s. He grinned easily, simply happy to be
there and performing.
The smiles
upon leaving the first round of competition were far different from the forced
expressions of cheeriness of a mere hour earlier. These new smiles beamed with
quiet pride and satisfaction. There was little talk of scores and judges and more of how everyone
felt personally about his performance. Laughter rang freely, as if we all had
let go of the collective breath we were
holding and were then able to relax and enjoy the art of the occasion.
Soon came
the 11 o’clock time slot designated for the Yosemite High one-act play. In the
hour before the performance, a great sense of camaraderie swept over our group.
Everyone helped to set the lights, find the props and move furniture for the
set. Suddenly, it became a collective effort whether you were in the spotlight
or not. We all aided in creating the piece.
Eleven
o’clock. Frank Sinatra started spreading the news that he was leaving today;
and the lights came up on the Yosemite High Players. I sat in my front-row
seat, expecting to see something I had seen a dozen time before. I found,
however, myself surprised and reacting as if I were a novice audience member.
Each
character I thought I knew so well after two months of directions was
transformed, more detailed and far beyond what I had ever seen before. The
lights faded and the audience applauded their agreement with me that it was an
outstanding performance.
As I tried
to weave through the crowd on my way out of the theater, the snippets of praise
and astonishment I heard smeared an irrepressible grin across my face. The
positive response continued in the adjudication as all three judges related how
much they enjoyed our play. One judge confessed that she waits excitedly each
year to see what Yosemite has brought to competition.
We sailed
through the rest of the competition with the thought that we had put on a great
performance. When the awards ceremony began, we sat together having absolutely
no idea what to expect, knowing only how stiff the competition was.
Yosemite
was the definite under dog with only one drama teacher and homemade costumes up
against the impressive Bay Area art schools with four theater instructors
apiece, a visiting artist and a seemingly unending budget.
First the
judges gave out a handful of outstanding acting awards for exceptional
performances in a play. Only a few awards were left when the judges called out,
“From Yosemite High School … Pete Koenen!”
We all
leapt to our feet screaming as Pete went on stage to accept his well-deserved
award. Just as our thunderous applause began to die down, the judges handed out
another award, “From Yosemite High School … the cast of ‘Words, Words,Words’ …
Michelle Ousey, Caroline McCarty and Jordan Michel!”
The
screaming and applause eventually died down to an uneasy silence as we awaited
our rating on the one-act play. The judges ran through the list of “good”
ratings as we clapped distractedly and tried to remember to breathe.
Then came
the awards for excellence. And finally the judges announced, “To Roosevelt
School for the Arts … superior!” … superior … wait, superior — that means … we
got — “To Yosemite High School …
superior!”
I don’t
remember who was screaming. I imagine everyone was. Superiors. The only school
with less than four drama teachers to get a superior. The only school of 1,100
students to get a superior. And the only
school to get a fourth consecutive superior at the Mother Lode Drama
Festival.
Superior.
The Yosemite High Players rushed the stage, shaking hands and shouting with
joy, Director Ron Huizing stood in the audience and applauded his Yosemite
Players for the last time. with a smile bursting with 20 years of heard work
and pride, he murmured, “What a swan song.”