While several schools traveled to the Florida District 5 Thespians festival on Nov. 16 to Nov. 18, the Boone thespians brought home the most awards.

“No words can explain how I feel that I will be able to perform at state. I can’t wait,” junior Zoe Postelwait said.

After months of practice, 98 thespians from Troupe 1139 rode buses each day to and from Ocoee High School to perform. The troupe received the most awards with 30 Superiors, 14 Excellents, 10 Best in Shows, two All-star Casts, two scholarships, one Best Actress and one Going to the State Competition act.

Two of the thespians earning recognition were junior Ben Bogdan and Postelwait. The pair won best in show for their comedic duet acting scene.

“My heart stopped beating. It just seems so unreal that it actually happened,” Postelwait said. “[Our scene is about] a 9-year-old girl who wants to play with her 10-year-old neighbor, but the boy won’t because he just turned 10 and thinks he knows politics, when in reality, he has no idea what he’s talking about.”

Both actors use accents to portray the role of immature kids, increasing the humor of the scene.

“We know we wanted to tell a story and perform the best we can. We prepared like anyone else would, we rehearsed and made sure we knew our scene,” Postelwait said.

Although thespians auditioned for events the last week of the previous school year, scheduling rehearsal time proved difficult.  Bogdan and Postelwait were also acting in the school’s fall play and had trouble finding time to commit to this, too.

“Our main struggle we had was having time to meet up and rehearse, we definitely overcame that when [the play] ‘Bad Seed’ was over, and it was easier to make time to rehearse,” Postelwait said. “We worked so hard to get our scene where we wanted it and this just proved that hard work pays off.” 

The other best in show awards were for: duet musical, duet acting, monologue, solo musical, lighting design, set design, production team, costume design, publicity design and junior Taylor Rosicka’s makeup design.

“I was super surprised when I won best in show because I had never done makeup before and it felt amazing and I felt really proud of my work,” Rosicka said.

With a new challenge ahead of her, Rosicka spent time developing her design influenced by the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin.

“I researched the looks of the people in the time period my play was set in, and I looked a lot into what my characters stood for and found ways to incorporate that into their makeup,” Rosicka said.

With little experience in competing makeup designs at districts, Rosicka did not know what to expect from the judges.

“My biggest struggle was doubting myself and my designs because they were so abstract. I knew the judges would either love it or hate it,” Rosicka said.

After winning best in show at districts, Rosicka will continue working on her designs in preparation for states.

“I’ll prepare for states by taking all the notes my judges gave me and incorporating those into my design,” Rosicka said.

Troupe 1139 will compete again at the Florida State Thespian Festival March 14 to March 17.

 

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