After a long year of hard work and dedication from theater students, the Starlight Theater Company hosts their annual banquet called STARS to celebrate the successes throughout the year. Every year there is a decoration theme to elevate the event. This year the STC presidents have chosen “Garden Under the Stars” as the banquet’s theme. Although the theme changes every year to maintain the element of surprise, they also have many recurring traditions such as gag gifts, theater thespians initiation, and end-of-the-year awards.
The awards at STARS consist of best leads and supporting characters in each show block, best technicians, and best overall student of each grade. As a member of the production class, I believe that the end of the year awards are exciting and beneficial to students. It gives students a chance to learn about rejection and success which I believe both to be important because when you want to do anything: start a business, be in a show, or get a job, you aren’t always going to be successful. Some people may get accepted into one job but not another. I believe that knowing you are worthy, smart, and talented without getting rewarded for everything is a good lesson because even if the students don’t get an award, it doesn’t deny their talent, it simply just highlights other students’ work.
Although some students may argue that awards are a way to compare students socially or are based on popularity, I believe that awards are a way to not only reward students’ accomplishments, but to benefit them. Students that win awards have the opportunity to list them on any college resume or mention it in a job interview. It gives students the chance to highlight their successes. It benefits all students because not winning an award means you can learn from the experience and work towards it in the future, and winning an award encourages students to keep up the good work.
The production students nominate others for these awards at the end of each show block. Then, the officers compile those nominations and students cast a final vote with all the nominees. It is important to know that the votes come from the student body, which in my opinion teaches students how to vote fairly because it can be a “popularity contest” if they don’t vote with integrity. Voting should be the students personal take on how well each actor or technician performed and executed their skills for that show block. In modern America, voting is a very important aspect of democracy. The voting system for something simple such as theater awards can provide insight to students about what voting looks like. Overall, I believe that if students stay true to their opinion, awards are very beneficial and widely important
The STARS awards are a great way to promote friendly competition, hard work from performers, and healthy participation in honest voting practices.
