Twenty nine students from Troupe 1139 travelled to Lexington, Ky. to compete in the Southeastern Theatre Conference, SETC, on March 1.
Ten schools in the Southeast (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia) select two high schools’ one act performances from their respective state theatre conferences to continue to SETC. Troupe 1139 won the Florida Theatre Conference, Nov. 2, which qualified them as one of two schools. Troupe 1139, alongside Gulf Breeze High School’s Troupe 4105, represented Florida.
“One of my favorite opportunities was getting to perform in at the Lexington Opera House which was one of the best experiences of my life,” senior Rosalind Helsinger said.
Troupe 1139 received five awards for their one act performance, “The Children’s Hour,” which included Best Play.
“I felt very honored that our hard work and dedicated was not only recognized, but appreciated. Our hearts went into this production and we brought the characters alive,” Nadine Love, theater teacher, said.
Seniors Amanda Paolicelli and Helsinger received All Star Cast, senior Sidney Roman won Best Supporting Actor and sophomore Sofia Deler won Best Actress. Additionally, 14 seniors participated in college auditions which resulted in 305 call backs.
“[Winning All Star Cast] was really special because I worked so hard on this production, but it was a team effort because we have been working since September,” Helsinger said. “My award is shared with everyone because we have worked so hard together.”
Finding time to rehearse their one act while in production of the spring musical, All Shook Up, proved challenging. The actors left for Kentucky three days after the spring show closed, which left them little time to rehearse. However, they were able to succeed with this challenge.