Members of the LAHS Olions get ready to head to the NMAA One-Act Competition in Rio Rancho. Photo Courtesy LAPS
Members of the Los Alamos High School Olions with the awards from the NMAA One-Act Competition are, from left, Zachary Sestric, Alyssa Miller, Ty Harding, Felix Lorenc, Ava Marie Sanchez and Hannah Waldschmidt. Photo Courtesy LAPS
LAPS NEWS RELEASE
The Los Alamos High School Thespian Club, Olions, recently traveled to Rio Rancho High School to participate in the NMAA One-Act Competition and returned with awards for their performance. They received third place for lighting and sound, and second place for costume, hair, and makeup.
“I am very proud of this group of students,” said Joseph Santi-Unger, Olions producer and coordinator. “Their hard work and dedication paid off, and they had a great experience.”
Students who performed in the play included:
Marina Archuleta
Annabelle Deburgomaster
Anna Ferenbaugh
Keira Fichtl
Genevive Fortin
Isabella Gletsos
Andie Kelly
Brigham Kuykendall
Haven Kuykendall
Ash Sapp
Anya Seet
Kaitlyn Seitz-Pruitt
Karly Seitz-Pruitt
Zachary Sestric
Maddelyn Sutton
Clove Tholen
Emma Wolff
Annie Xie.
The technical crew includes:
Ariela Rittner, Head Stage Manager;
Felix Lorenc, Playback Operator;
Ty Harding, Sound Designer and Light Operator;
Alyssa Miller, Assistant Sound Designer and Assistant Stage Manager;
Kylie Shrader, Assistant Stage Manager;
Hannah Waldschmidt, Costume Designer Assistant Stage Manager;
Ava Marie Sanchez: Makeup and Assistant Stage Manager.
Iris Purtzer, Makeup; Noah Banks, Set Designer; and Ester Keiter, Lighting Designer, were unable to go to the competition in Rio Rancho, but played a big part in the preparations and in
the performance of their play in the Duane-Smith Auditorium.
Olions performed the one-act play “The Hallmarks of Horror,” by Peter Bloedel. According to the publisher’s website, the writeup for this play is, “Scary movies are full of different ways to give you nightmares–but once you figure out the formula, the frightful looks pretty funny. Take a whirlwind tour through the common categories of the creepy, from lines like “let’s split up!” to tropes like the car that never starts. If you dare to master everything from cobwebs to clowns, you’ll be ready when they all converge in a single hilarious finale scene. You won’t believe how fast the spine-chilling turns side- splitting when you know the secrets of The Hallmarks of Horror!”
In addition to the performance itself, the students had a short tech rehearsal and “on-deck” time right before their performance in which the adults who are typically in the room, namely
Patrick Web., Olions sponsor and Santi-Unger, were not allowed to give the students any direction.
”It was entirely up to them to load our equipment into the space, to get familiar with the venue’s technical equipment, and to organize themselves so that they would be ready to perform,” said Santi-Unger. “After the performance we went into a critique session with one of the judges where the kids got fantastic feedback on their performance and acting and technical advice,”
“The kids were professional throughout the entire competition and festival,” noted Santi-Unger. “Even though I didn’t see them during their on-deck time, in their tech rehearsal they were polite and concise with each other and with the venue personnel while at the same time getting the job done quickly and correctly.”
The costume, hair and makeup judge said of the Olions, “I appreciate that this group is more
than willing to ask any question that comes to their mind, because I’m more than happy to
answer whatever they need. I feel that many groups get intimidated by the idea of having to ask, so it’s refreshing that this does not seem to be the case with this group. Students took care to sanitize their tools and the cosmetics. In fact, I’ve never seen any group quite so diligent about this process. Actors were in charge of their own costumes. Quick change costumes were kept on a rack for easy transport. Techs communicated their needs between one another politely andeffectively.”
“Successfully integrated lights and sound into the production practicing professional execution
of tasks,” was noted by the light and sound judge.
Another judge commented of the performance that, “Humor, in this case satire, is much more
difficult to produce and execute than tragedy and the group was successful in their endeavor,
and it was quite an enjoyable piece to watch.”
This year there were 23 schools performing in the competition., which was combined with an
International Thespian Society (ITS) festival that featured a day of workshops and a miniature
college fair. In addition to their performance, LAHS students had the opportunity to see several
plays from other schools including the overall winners of the competition in both the Sparta and Athens divisions.
The Olions host club meetings during W.I.N. time on Tuesdays where they do everything from
acting games to theatre tech tutorials. The next Olions production is “The 25th Annual Putnam
County Spelling Bee,” by Rachel Sheinkin, which will be performed in the spring. Auditions for
this show are being held next week.
Past productions by the Olions have included Les Misérables: School Edition, Pippin: The Musical, and Frozen.