Plains high school students prepare for Dramafest

Danielle Switalski

The students of Plains High School drama have been putting in the hours preparing to head to Dramafest in Missoula the weekend of February 5 and 6 in the hopes of making it to the National level this summer in Nebraska.

Dramafest is held every year at the University of Montana and has students from all over the state perform different skits throughout the weekend, with various acting competitions and classes along with the performances. This year PHS drama will be performing 45 minutes of the play Radio Razzle Dazzle, which they performed in town this past Fall.

“There are classes they can take on the back stage stuff, the lighting or makeup, costuming or stage painting and different little classes they can take throughout the day for that kind of thing and they learn a lot, it’s a lot of fun,” said Assistant Director Cathy Emmett.

This year, Plains has a solid group of students going including junior Taylor Boles, who won second place in a tongue twister competition, junior Kenny Griggs, junior Bethany Mack, freshman Samantha Garrison, freshman Dillon Francesconi, senior Colter Marple, senior Christian Zigler, freshman Drew Mack, along with Emmett and the Director Teri Henry.

Emmett said the students began rerehearsing Radio Razzle Dazzle a few weeks ago to perfect the play. Radio Razzle Dazzle is set on New Years Day in 1940 at a radio station that is frantically trying to put on a radio program when most of the participants don’t show up, setting in motion a series of chaotic, yet hilarious events.

“We cut it to a 30 minute play, the kids wanted to do the whole play, but there’s no time,” said Emmett who took over the assistant director position this year after continuous years of volunteering with the drama program.

This year the group of students get to attend a formal dinner at Dramafest while seeing a complimentary performance put on by the Mont Repertory Theatre. Awards are also given out in various categories such as Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Performance. Look to future issues of the Valley Press for updates on Dramafest.