By Emily Cheatham | Staff writer
Indian Trail High School & Academy’s latest theatre production, Almost Maine, garnered several awards at the state competition Nov. 24 and the cast will also be attending the National Thespian Festival in Nebraska in June.
At the Wisconsin High School Theatre Festival at University of Wisconsin-Madison, the cast walked away with great praise, an Ensemble Award, and the Critic’s Choice Award, meaning the show was considered among the best shows at state, according to Robert Allen, Theatre Arts teacher and director.
Students performed to nearly a full house, got two standing ovations, including one in the middle of the show for a scene starring Peter Wierzba. Judges honored Wierzba with the Outstanding Actor Award.
“Being my senior year it was an absolutely amazing experience making it all the way to state, then on top of that receiving a standing ovation for your performance is one of the greatest feelings and experiences I’ve ever had,” Wierzba said.
“To top it all off, I was extremely honored to receive an outstanding actor award. I have to thank Mr. Allen for directing me so well and my fellow actors, Maddie Scheiber and Andrew Woods in particular for, excuse the pun, playing their part in my reception of the award.”
The production spent months since August rehearsing and bringing Almost, Maine to life to premiere at the Indian Trail auditorium at the beginning of October. Almost, Maine is one act, only 45 minutes, which also includes the time it takes to put on and take off the set. If the group goes over the time, the judges take off points. In judging, there is no first, second, or third place, every group is judged separately and receives awards purely based on their own performance and not what others have done. Towards the end of October, the group took the production to the first stage
of competition and walked away with a pass to the next level. The cast and crew have been on a roll ever since.
“It has been really fun doing the show,” said Abby Greer, stage manager and General Studies sophomore. “It can be stressful at times, but it’s worth it in the end to see the actors put on such an amazing performance. It’s also wonderful that we have made it to state. A lot of schools don’t have the oppor- tunity!”
The Indian Trail group wasn’t the only Kenosha Unified School District high school to make it to the state competition. Theater groups from Bradford High School who performed Hello My Baby and Lakeview High School who preformed Wasp also competed Nov. 22-24.