UIL SHOW: SIX DEGREES

Fifteen Bowie theater students wait in anticipation as they fiddle with their costumes, pat down their hair, mutter their lines, and watch the technical crew set the various props and furniture. The curtain opens, the play begins, but it isn’t Bowie’s stage their on, and the audience isn’t Starlight Theater audience regulars. Instead they are on a foreign stage at an auditorium or another school, being watched and assessed by judges. The UIL season has begun.

Each year the Starlight Theater Company participates in the theatrical division of the University Interscholastic League, or UIL. The objective is to perform a well-executed and performed show in under forty minutes with a cast of fifteen people maximum; understandably, not an easy task. This year the show is “Six Degrees of Separation” by John Guare: a show centered around a con man interacting with Upper East Side parents.

“According to the author,” director Betsy Cornwel said. “The show was based on a real person who has an upper east side upbringing and he just did it to manipulate people.”

The show’s structure is also different from past UIL shows.

“The UIL shows that we’ve done for the last few years have been very ensemble oriented where everyone starts on stage and everyone ends on stage,” Cornwell said, “in this play two people start on stage and two people end the play and the ensemble comes in and out.”

As mentioned before, there are many challenging parts about the UIL show, that aren’t necessarily as stressed in other shows. One of the biggest requirements is the time limit.

“The most challenging part about UIL is trying to tell the best story you can but yet keeping it under time,” Cornwell said.

The time is also a concern of the actors and technical crew involved in the show.

“The time is the biggest issue that we have in the rehearsal period because if you go over, you’ll be disqualified and that would be really bad,” senior Paige Bradbury said.

The competition to get into the UIL show is intense as well, and it’s considered a huge honor to get cast in the show.

“The competition was so high among all the girls, there are only 5 female roles in it, so nobody knew how it was going to end up, it was very uncertain- undetermined. I’m just very fortunate to have made the cast,” junior Emma Haschke said.

The team had its first competition on March 22, and then another on the 24. If they advance on from those, they have the next round on March 31, and so on until state.

“As I team I hope that we advance, in an ideal world all the way to state, but that is very difficult, I just hope that we get farther than we did last year which was the third round.” Haschke said.

The actors also grow and further their skills through the UIL program, because of how challenging the roles are.

“These characters always have to go through a journey, every character, no matter who your play is based on, and you have to make sure that every actor senses the growth of the character,” Cornwell said.

The rehearsal period is just under six weeks, so it can be difficult for the actors to get to know their characters before their first performance.

“It’s hard to be able to work so quickly and be able to make interesting choices; you just don’t have a lot of time,” junior Jackson Walker said.

The pressure to perform phenomenally is much more heavily laid on the small cast during UIL season because of the pressure to bring home a few awards and hopefully advance to state; this weight allows for the students to grow as performers in a impressive way throughout the rehearsal and performance period.

We are only allowed 15 maximum actors so it’s a lot closer, smaller group, so the responsibility it laid on these kids shoulders much more heavily than a cast of 100,” Cornwell said.

In spite of the stress, the small cast allows the students to become close to each other in a way that is not seen in large casts.

“My favorite thing about UIL is the bond that you have with the other cast members, since it is such a small cast there really is a strong sense of family.” Bradbury said.

The minimal cast also allows for the students to become closer than a normal cast of thirty plus would.

UIL can be a challenging program for everyone involved, but the bond between the cast members, the opportunity to perform in front of schools from all over the state, and the theatrical growth that comes through so much responsibility keeps Bowie coming back year after year.

The Starlight Theater Company is a non-stop program and it often seems that a new production is always right around the corner. Once again, there are a variety of theater projects coming up this spring that are definitely keeping the theater students on their toes.

The team had its first competition on March 22 and Jackson Walker won Best Actor, Chloe Byars and Zane Stults won All Star Cast, Miguel Lozano and Jamie Godwin received an Honorable Mention, and Kamryn Bryce won Outstanding Technician.

The production itself won first place at the Zone and District level competitions, as well as recieving praise from a particular judge, “I forgot that I was watching students onstage, I was definitely watching adults during the show,” paraphrased by Marco Bazan.

On the 24th of March the team experienced similar success and advanced to the bi-district rounds, surrounded by the support of their peers and cheered on by Starlight Theater Company.

SPRING SHOWS

On April 7-9th Bowie’s stage will set for the 2016 Spring Shows. Traditionally, Spring Shows begin production a week after the musical closes, there are three to four, and tragically, they are the Senior Directors last show to act in. What sets the Spring Shows apart from the other productions throughout the year is that Bowie brings in one or two college students to direct a show. This year they include UT Austin student Nicolas Garza and Texas State student, Courtney Hall; who happens to be a Bowie alumni.

“I always knew I wanted to teach, I just didn’t know what, it wasn’t until after I was accepted into college when I was like ‘I want to teach, I want to do theater, why don’t I just teach theater’.” Hall said. “It’s really weird to come back to Bowie; I still get dress-coded.”

Hall is directing The Women, a very girl heavy cast (hence the title) with a large ensemble. The show features Upper East Side Women and their lives, primarily Mary Haines as she deals with her family’s growing drama. Bowie’s production of The Women is different from the traditional show, in a fun way, as it adds some boys to the mix.

“I’ve always wanted to do The Women but I’ve never had the right cast for it.” Hall said. “So i decided that I could do The Women, and add guys, because I like big ensembles, so I was like; this is my chance to totally mess the show up- in a good way- and make it into something it’s definitely never been.”

Garza Is directing Caught Between Two Worlds, a story about a girl growing up with a Hispanic father and white mother, and her struggle to find her place in the word.

“Caught Between Two Worlds is about this girl who is half-white/half-Latino and for me, my dad is Mexican and my mom is Polish, so I’ve always been in this in between phase and this story kind of deals with that; like with this girl and where does she fit in?” Garza said.

In addition to Caught Between Two Worlds and The Women, returning theater director Matthew Humphrey is directing The Cripple of Inishmaan; a story about an Irish cripple and the community he lives in (that feature a set of fun accents), and the rest of the directors, Betsy Cornwell, Marco Bazan, and Kalyn Holloway are directing the competitive UIL show.