For the first time, UIL theatre has advanced to State making history for North Garland. Today, UIL actors and technicians, also known as sheriffs, left for Austin to compete with their winning one-act play “These Shining Lives.”
“We are one of the top eight schools in the state of Texas to advance in the one act play,” theatre director Nancy Gibson said. “And there are only two schools in the district that have ever gone to state, ever.”
To better themselves for State, actors and technicians go over the critiques from different judges from past performances. Not only do they rehearse over their lines in the script, but they also do subtext where they read between the lines which will help them take out emotion for the character they are playing.
“We’re keeping [rehearsal] fresh and fun, not just boring and memorizing lines but also playing around,“ Gibson said. “We are actually going to rehearse in an old warehouse to get the feel of the dingy, hot sweaty look of it.”
Based on other contest results, the school has succeeded in all the fine arts this year through art, band, orchestra, and choir.
“We are proud to be part of the other departments and their high scores and ranking,” Gibson said. “I mean everybody has been doing so great. North Garland should be proud of their fine arts.”
According to Gibson, the seniors set the bar high this year, meaning that the underclassmen have a lot to live up to if one year they too want to go to state.
“It’s going to be hard next year to compete with this year because the senior class of 2013 has just held every position for the last four year, and [basically] they control the department,” Gibson said. “[Underclassmen] have been followers and not leaders [these past years] because [the senior class] controls so much.”
Only having a couple underclassmen follow the seniors’ footsteps for the next couple of years in UIL, according to Gibson, it is going to be hard to get up once again to the level they as a group have reached this year.
“I don’t think North Garland will go to State for a while, because it’s just a magical show and you never know…magic happens,” Gibson said.