WHS has a strong theater department, filled with students who are both talented, and passionate about what they do. While theater is widely viewed as recreational, Oregon has a statewide competition in which students from all schools have the opportunity to present their skills and compete. For the students who act on stage, they perform scenes or monologues for the judges, but State is not only open to actors. Stage technicians also have the opportunity to showcase their talent, by putting together presentations on a specific topic related to what they do for the theater department.

For WHS, two stage techs presented their areas of expertise at State. Stage manager Senior Andrew Murphy went over his management of the most recent musical our school has done, Once Upon A Mattress, and senior Noah Stanley presented makeup looks that they designed for the play She Kills Monsters. Both techs put together thorough explanations of their subjects, and gave speeches to a panel of judges.  After the three days of competition, they both ended up winning the Showcase Select awards in their areas!

Stanley showed examples of stage makeup for a selection of characters in She Kills Monsters, a play with a variety of fantasy characters inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. The design and execution of these intricate makeup looks is what earned Noah the win. 

Andrew Murphy presented on his management of Once Upon A Mattress, and ran the judges through all of his responsibilities and jobs throughout the production process. He proved to be capable to lead a production of that size, and the judges were impressed with his qualifications.

With wins for both of the technicians, and the rest of the theater troupe performing well, this year’s state was a success for the WHS theater department. Look for news on Spark, their next show, as it moves along in production.