A troop of young actors from Culver City High School's Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) attended the DTASC Fall Theatre Festival — the Drama Teachers Assn of Southern California — on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Carson High School, and came away winners.
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From left, Kevin Mitchell, Conor Murphy, Louie Chavez and Jesse Pilchin finished first
Actors Jesse Pilchin, Conor Murphy and Kevin Mitchell, directed by Louie Chavez, won a first place trophy for their performance in a scene from The Lonesome West by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh.
All first-place finishers will perform at “Salute to the Winners,” Sunday, Nov. 15, at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., starting at 6 o’clock.
The AVPA's winning scene will be performed at 7:30.
Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased online at BGTTix.com.
“Awesome” — “amazing” —“inspiring,” were some of the exclamatory descriptions used by 30 members of AVPA's Blurred Vision Theater Company when they joined in competition with 71 schools from all over Southern California, to act, dance, sing and design at the Fall Festival.
The rules were simple.
No costumes.
No props.
No makeup.
Just four chairs and acting ensembles from two to ten players.
AVPA students participated in seven separate events including: Monologue, Top 100 AFI film scenes, Scenes for Social Change, Musical, Scenes by Irish Playwrights, Large Cast Drama and Large Cast Comedy. Actors and ensembles competed in two compulsory rounds. Four of AVPA's seven scenes went on to the semi-finals and from there one scene made it to the finals. “Nothing gets closer to an athletic event for drama kids than this,” said Pilchin after the final round was over.
Pilchin, Murphy and Mitchell performed their scene from The Lonesome West five times before walking away with the first place trophy in the Scenes by Irish Playwrights category.
The AVPA students are looking forward to participating in the DTASC Shakespeare Festival next April.
In the meantime, friends and supporters can see the Blurred Vision Theatre Company's production of Nicholas Nickleby, running Nov. 12-Nov. 22 at the SPoT.
Ticket information is available at www.avpa.org.
