Dateline Anaheim — At the end of the prestigious California Educational Theatre Assn. festival, five actors from Culver City High School’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts program earned Certificates of Merit from the AVPA fall production of West Moon Street.
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Award-winning AVPA students (from left)Aaron Moses, Nicole Julian, Tennessee Westmoreland, Emily Dorrel, Olivia Finnegan, Amy King.
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Atiyyah Joseph and Kayla Valentine were in the August Wilson Competition
Tennessee Westmoreland, Emily Dorrel, Olivia Finnegan, Aaron Moses and Amy King were the winning students.
Also on the weekend of Jan. 13-15, Nicole Julian, who will compete on the Mark Taper Forum stage, became a semi-finalist in the August Wilson Monologue Competition.
With Ms. Julian joining 14 actors who are advancing, this will mark the first time the Mark Taper will have students perform on their stage.
Twenty-nine AVPA theatre students attended the annual CETA Festival. CETA is the California Educational Theatre Association.
Servite High School hosted the Southern California high school theatre programs over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend.
The AVPA theatre group arrived early in the afternoon on Friday. After settling into their hotel rooms and had some time to relax and play pool-side. That evening was spent at the Servite High theatre to see one of four regional main stage winning productions, Leading Ladies, and afterward they headed back to the hotel for the night.
On Saturday morning the group returned to the school for another regional winning show, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a day full of workshops and auditions (four seniors for CETA scholarships and four African-American actors for the August Wilson Monologue Competition).
The students finished Saturday with two more shows, another regional winner, The Crucible, and a Comedy Sportz improv show. Sunday ended the weekend of events with the last regional show winner, Once in a Lifetime, and the awards ceremony.
“CETA was an amazing experience,” said 12th grader Amy King. “It provided the opportunity for us to view many quality productions. I really appreciated the opportunity to compete for two scholarships. Even though I didn't win, I benefited from the experience. I now feel prepared for my college auditions as well as professional auditions.”
Eleventh grader Olivia Finnegan said that CETA “never is a disappointment. The people always are so nice. The atmosphere is fantastic, no matter what you do.”
Mr. Lujan, Creative Director, Theatre, for the AVPA program, may be contacted at justinlujan@avpa.org
