By Maddie Coate
and Quinn Kropschot
Staff Writers
The Mira Costa Drama Department won the Grand Sweepstakes on March 16 at the Fullerton Performing Arts Competition for the first time in Costa history.
Contributing to the overall win, the Costa improvisational team, Team Haha, won second in Theater Games and senior Gracie Markland received third place for her monologue. The Drama Department also won first and second place, respectively, for its 10-minute excerpts from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and “Anything Goes.”
“I was so proud of the students and the entire Drama Department and the team,” Drama advisor Carol Mathews said. “I was completely surprised and excited when we won.”
Fullerton is a two-day long theater and performing arts competition that schools from across California compete in. To prepare, the Drama Department held auditions for the scenes about a month before the competition. On March 16, Drama held the Dessert Theater, which is a preview of its upcoming Fullerton performances.
“The Dessert Theater is one of my favorite things held during the year,” Fullerton participant junior Sabrina Mongiello said. “It is always very fun and exciting to see all of the different things that we are taking to Fullerton.”
Costa Drama has been attending Fullerton for the past 23 years.
“It was actually a shock that we won the Sweepstakes award, but it makes sense because every single person at Fullerton contributed to this accomplishment,” Drama Co-President Kathleen Yates said.
“It definitely paid off, and it has made us especially excited for ‘Anything Goes’ as we begin to head into heavy rehearsals.”
Drama held auditions for its spring musical production, “Anything Goes,” from Jan. 14-16. During auditions, students sang songs, danced and read scenes aloud.
“I wanted to choose a fun tap show this year,” Mathews said. “There are a ton of parts, so the play gives many students an opportunity to be a part of the production.”
The cast of over 50 students began rehearsals on Jan. 22. The full production premieres on April 19 at 7 p.m. in the Costa auditorium.
“Performing at Fullerton gave us a really good feel for how an audience views the characters in the play,” “Anything Goes” cast member senior Buster Baer said. “I think everyone really liked it, and I cannot wait for the rest of Costa to see the show.”
According to Mathews, the Drama Department has not done a play with as much high-energy tap dancing since their production of “Crazy For You” four years ago. To further prepare the students for their dance scenes, choreographer Christopher Albrecht held a Tap Boot Camp during ski week for all of the cast members.
“There are a number of students in the production who have never danced before, but the whole cast has been working extremely hard to learn the choreography,” Albrecht said. “They’ve gotten blisters from all the dancing, but the work is definitely paying of and the show is going to be great.”
The cast will also have performances on April 20 and 25-27 at 7:30 p.m. Matinees will be held on April 24 at 3:30 p.m. and on April 27 at 2 p.m.
Pre-sale tickets go on sale on April 1 at the Costa auditorium for $12 . Tickets at the door will cost $15.
“I am extremely excited to perform the show,” “Anything Goes” cast member senior Elissa Wells said. “Everyone has been working really well together and having a great time rehearsing for the past couple of months. This is a classic musical that will show everyone who sees it a great time.”
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