It was 7am and students were making their way from all over central Iowa, all headed to Ankeny High School. The snow and the wind, however, made this trip less than enjoyable. After arriving, white knuckled and a little shaky, we were all anxious to find our group members and begin rehearsing. 

The day started early with a group mime featuring juniors Rebekah Ostermann, Michael Colon-Ramos and senior Taylor McDaniel. The group portrayed a funny enactment centered around a plane trip that involves a scandalous affair.

Junior, Rebekah Ostermann, comments on her experience, “It was a lot of fun. It’s different because it is mime, so you’re not allowed to use your words. The ability to express a story, and tell a story through action is really exciting, and it was a really cool experience.”

The group earned straight ones, a feat that would start the ball rolling on North’s record breaking day.

Next up was another group mine, that walked away with straight twos, it featured a group of underclassmen who worked hard, but just weren’t quiet prepared for the competitive atmosphere.

Around 9:30 almost all of North’s students headed down to Ankeny’s auditorium and packed the front row to support the One Act play. The fantastic senior duo of Forrest Mathison and Daniel Kanyavimonh paired with junior Mike Xayavong to produce an act of theater magic that had everyone laughing the entire time.

They attempted and succeeded at The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged, a three man show that challenges not only comedy, but also their lungs as they ran, jumped, screamed and changed clothes too many times to count.

Senior, Daniel Kanyavimonh, shares “Saturday, it was extremely chaotic but it was a lot of fun. We were always nervous and hyped up on energy. But when they would ask us if we were ready, it would just hit us – like ‘it was time to perform’. We were ready and we set up the big red chest, and they announced us, as school 34. I left it all on stage, no matter what happened. I ripped my tights, I bled, Mike broke a water bottle, and Forrest got hit in the head. And we really did leave it all on the stage”

 They earned a superior rating, and remained a crowd favorite the rest of the day.

Some of our original cast members from our fall musical performed Urinetown, and also earned straight ones. The vocals of Rebekah Ostermann and Melissa Sosa were beautiful and had students from other schools whispered “wow, they were good!”

This group also included senior, Andrew Jero who expressed his point of view “Urinetown is an interesting piece. We started in August, and still were performing it now. It was starting to wear me down. I played a variety of characters over the course of the show. The piece didn’t click in until districts, and then when we got to State, I felt mentally prepared and good about the piece. ” This group also included Xayavong, and Mayte Gomez Cruz.

Bao Luong, Jero and Sosa also received straight ones in their ensemble piece, ‘Of Mice and Men’. The room was chilled at the intense scene and it left the audience applauding.

Luong shared “I was nervous, really nervous. I felt ready but at the same time, I always feel like things could always be better. I wanted to make sure it was better than the times before. Afterward, I didn’t know how to feel about it but people said they enjoyed it so I felt better about it. Now I’m not so sure – the ballots pointed out a lot of negative things.”

It was followed by an inventive improv by Calvin Lovan and Kanyavimonh, which earned a superior rating. They cracked jokes that had one of the judges fanning herself with a clip board because she was laughing so hard.

Senior, Calvin Lovan, discusses improv “I felt like Danny and I did really great. Personally I feel like we were short ended by the judges. Improv is really fun, but it’s really about the luck of the draw. Some situations are really hard, hard to get into, and hard to progress and build characters for. Danny and I have worked together for two years. I was so nervous before performing, I felt like I was gonna get sick every five minutes, but then when we got into the room my adrenaline started.”

Students took a break to eat lunch, congregating at lunch tables and eating slices of Papa John’s pizza. The scores posted during lunch were 4/5 superior ratings. Students made jokes, and tried to shake the nervous energy. Junior Michael Colon-Ramos picked up the competition around three with his solo mime, that received two ones and a two.

At 3:30 the brother-sister team of Yanet and Guillermo Velasquez shared their experience; “It was great, because I didn’t think we would make it state but we did. We had problems with our group because of grades. We had to erase it two days before districts. At state I was freaking out because we were against 31 radio broadcasts, and it was good because the judges gave us good comments. It felt really great because it was our first year at contest.”

They received straight ones on their radio broadcast, something to brag about for these two first time contest participants.

A group of freshman then performed the musical Shrek, and received a superior as well. Our other group mime, titled “Accidents Happen” received two two’s and a one.

To finish up the day, seniors Calvin Lovan and Leah Waughtal performed their ensemble piece based on Stephan King’s Misery. The duo’s handwork paid off when they received a superior rating.

By the end of the day, North had received nine superior ratings at State, a record for the performing arts department. But the numbers can’t express what the drama department experienced that day.

From Calvin Lovan almost getting sick in the middle of his lines, to Melissa Sosa losing her shoe during her death scene. Or Mike Xayavong dropping an entire bottle of water on the floor during his performance, and hitting Forrest Mathison in the head with a volleyball. Or possibly, one of the best moments, when Daniel Kanyavimonh made a ghostbusters joke during his improv.

Saturday February 8^th wasn’t about the competition, it was about students working hard and learning the pay off of dedication.