Photo courtesy of Eric St. John.
SPHS theatre travels
Actors Sam Hankins and Megan Pecot perform in Amelia the Brave. Pecot was named Best Actress in a One Act at the December Trumbauer Festival for her role.
As school lets out and students are focused on relaxation and time away from school, Spain Park High School theater students are not finished yet. In the fall semester, the advanced theater class wrote, scored, designed and produced a one-act play titled Amelia the Brave.
The play is a multimedia production, combining live music, pantomime, puppetry, shadow puppetry and animation. It tells the story of a young girl who must confront the sudden illness of a loved one. Though its creative mix may seem to suggest a children’s show, Amelia the Brave is a story for teens and adults as well. Judges at the December festival called it “luminous,” “beautifully done, sweet, fresh and unique” and a play that “made me fall in love with theater again.”
The students performed the play for the statewide Trumbauer Theatre Festival. SPHS won the state title of Best in Show for the seventh time in the school’s history.
In lieu of performing their show at the Southeastern Theatre Conference, the students opted to look for alternate venues to perform. From June 5-8, students will perform at the Atlanta Fringe Festival, which features alternative and new theater. Along with their performances in Atlanta, several students will travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, to perform for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
These festivals represent an opportunity for professional performance for many of the students, as the Fringe Festival is open to a wider age range than the Trumbauer Theatre Festival. Before the students leave, they will give a final performance at SPHS on June 3 at 7 p.m. Proceeds from the performance will help fund the students’ travel expenses.
Adults $8, Students $5. Concessions are pay what you will.
—Submitted by Eric St. John
