Last weekend, more than 2,000 students from 70 schools participated in the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California (DTASC) Fall Festival at Temecula Valley High School in Temecula, California. Chaminade’s high school drama students from performed in six out of a possible eight categories. DTASC is a student driven competition, with the drama director serving as coach/advisor as students direct their fellow students in timed scenes following specific guidelines.

All students perform their scenes for judges in two rounds before cuts begin. All of Chaminade’s scenes moved on to semi-finals, three of which moved on to the final round receiving the following awards:

• Second place trophy in the Large Open Drama category for a scene from Warhorse directed by and featuring Hannah Ponturo ’15 and Thomas Kuklenski ’16, with Samantha Bloomfield ’18, Brandon Marsh ’16, Christian Puente-Ortiz ’17, Jonah Warschaw ’16.
• Honorable Mention in the Play of Social Conscience category for a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest directed by and featuring Maeve Martinez ’16, with Joe Gutesha ’17, William Rose-Hines ’18, Ryan Town ’16.
• Honorable Mention plaque in the More Than a Narrator category for a scene from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland directed by and featuring Daisy Bishop ’17, with Gracie Jurczyk ’17, Nora Rose-Hines ’18, Bella Torres ’17.
• Shout out for Audition Monologue went to Charlotte Powers ’17; Theme Collage Musical directed by and featuring Brianna Bryan ’15, Lily Khalighi ’16, with Amanda Drewes ’17, Ian Home ’16, Alejandro Navarro ’16, Zoie Tannous ’16, Dominic Torquato ’15; and Large Open Comedy directed by and featuring Matt Masino ’15, with Mark Diaz ’18, Lauren Nwajei ’16, Mary Reynosa ’17, Natalie Rowland ’17, and Sam Yu ’16 – our semi-finalists!

Chaminade Players stage management team members Lindsay Holcomb ’15, Rebecca Gerny ’16, and Thomas Martin ’17 served as room chairs for the competition, maintaining rules and timing scenes.