Saturday November 22, the two theatre classes of first trimester got on a bus bright and early and headed to Bethel College to compete once again in the Thespian Regional Competition. Six schools competed for the top three places in order to advance to state. I had the pleasure to be a part of this competition piece again the year and I was very excited when we arrived at Bethel. This year, we wrote a piece called Flight 1106 about the stories within an airport. The beginning contained stories of where people were going, then transitioned onto the plane where characters shared their feelings about who they were sitting by and how they felt about this plane ride. It all lead up to a cliff hanger ending.

When we finally arrived, we were a bit early so we had time to watch the first show. Penn High School was up first. Their rendition of The Pillowman blew me away. Every school gets to sit down with the three judged for a critique afterwards and these judges had very little negativity towards that piece. During Warsaw’s performance, we headed towards the green room to get ready. We performed right before lunch. The judges didn’t say anything negative really, just gave us some suggestions but they loved our projection and our ending. After lunch, we watched Carmel, Northrop, and then Greenfield Central. Next was acting workshops. A group of us attended an acting technique workshop for about 20 minutes. We were behind schedule since a few shows went over time. During the award ceremony, Jenna Boese was name the star performer from our school, we were called for best ensemble, and then we never heard our name called again. We headed towards the bus and had a depressing bus ride home.

East Noble had placed every year since we began writing a piece for the regional competition. Personally, I was disappointed. I hoped and prayed we would give our performance 110%, and that we would give it enough effort to go to state once again this year. I was a shock to receive 1^st place last year, and then 4^th this year. Overall, I learned from this experience. I learned to make sure next year we give it our all and we can once again journey to the state competition. I thoroughly enjoyed putting together Flight 1106 and performing with my amazing fellow cast members. Don’t worry guys, we’ll get them next year!