DALTON, Ga. (AP) - A trio of Dalton Middle School drama students excelled at the Georgia Jr. Thespian Conference earlier this year and earned the opportunity to perform this summer at the International Thespian Festival.
That’s “a huge honor,” said Courtenay Cholovich, Theater Arts teacher at Dalton Middle School. “Rarely do high school thespians get this invitation, much less middle-schoolers.”
Eva Ashcraft, Kinsley Stephens and Molly Watts performed a musical theater trio piece before a panel of professional judges at the state conference in Columbus on Feb. 29, Cholovich said. They received superior marks, were asked to close out the conference with their number in front of a crowd of 1,000 of their peers, and qualified for the 2020 International Thespian Festival, which was scheduled for late June on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.
However, because of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Dalton Middle School trio won’t be visiting Indiana this summer. That festival will instead be offered virtually, Cholovich said. Consequently, though Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts won’t be able to compete along with other students at Indiana University, they will be able to perform virtually “and be adjudicated as Superior Performers from their chapter conference.”
Since this would have been the first appearance for the trio at the international festival, “I’m kind of upset” to miss out, Stephens said. “I was really looking forward to it - it was going to be the highlight of my summer - but at least we’re still going to be able to do it; we’ll make it work.”
It’s “very unfortunate it had to be this way, but it’s understandable,” Watts said. “I’m sad about it, but it comes down to safety, and virtual is the best way to do it.”
“I’m very proud, no matter the circumstances, now,” she added. “We worked really hard, (and) taking this (challenge on) has really helped our confidence.”
Indeed, this experience is “going to help me in the long run,” Stephens said. The classes at the state festival were highly beneficial, and “it was exciting to be there.”
“I want to go to a performing arts college, and my dream is to be on Broadway,” she added. The more she can perform on stage, “the more comfortable I’ll be.”
UNEXPECTED SUCCESS
Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts have already tasted more success than they could have imagined.
“We thought (the state conference) would be amazing and fun, but we didn’t have high hopes at all,” Ashcraft said. “We wanted to see what it was like” for future years.
When invited to perform at the festival’s closing, their success sunk in, and “I was ecstatic,” added Ashcraft, a seventh-grader. “I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears, and I was extremely proud.”
“We were so surprised, and I cried, (because) I was so happy,” Stephens said. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”
Dalton Middle School’s 2019 spring musical was “Orphie & the Book of Heroes,” a story that involves a young girl’s desire to become a Greek hero, Cholovich said. The protagonist meets several characters from Greek mythology, and in one song, “To Be a Siren,” sirens teach a trainee how to become a siren.
It was that “very catchy tune” with “extremely-complicated vocal harmonies” that Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts chose to perform at the conference in Columbus, she said. “It’s a great number, and not one judges see a lot.”
It’s also “perfect” for the voices of Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts, because of its three-part harmony, Ashcraft said. Ashcraft, a high soprano, handled the highest parts, Stephens, a mezzo-soprano, tackled the medium sections, and Watts, a lower alto, took the lowest elements.
“We were super anxious, so we rehearsed in front of everyone at the hotel” prior to the state convention, Watts said. “We wanted to make sure our harmonies all sounded great.”
They were obsessed with getting their routine right, said Stephens, a seventh-grader. “We were silently practicing our moves in the crowd.”
They choreographed their routine together, and “they are incredibly engaging together,” Cholovich said. “We also had a great deal of help from Lori Etheridge,” a vocal instructor at the middle school.
Cholovich and Etheridge “really helped us,” said Watts, who is in the eighth grade. “They made sure we sounded the best we could, and it really worked out well.”
Teachers “helped us a lot,” Stephens said. Cholovich “is an awesome teacher, and (Etheridge) helped us perfect our harmonies and singing.”
Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts all boast tremendous stage presence, with utter “command of voice and body,” Cholovich said. “All three of them are constantly in productions at school and in the community.”
THEATER VETERANS
All three students “have done theater our entire lives,” Ashcraft said. “I started when I was 7.”
“Theater is different from other sports - it is a sport - because there’s always something new, and it’s never predictable,” she added. “You can never predict what it’s going to be like.”
Watts jumped into theater in third grade, and she quickly learned drama is “full-on teamwork,” she said. “Drama and theater has really defined me as a person.”
“I’m definitely a people person, I love making new friends, and I’m not afraid to start a conversation,” she added. The middle school’s theater troupe is “a very close bunch, and everyone should have the opportunity to do theater.”
Stephens picked up theater in the third grade, and she’s already a veteran of the Artistic Civic Theatre (ACT) and the Dalton Little Theatre (DLT).
“I like that I can sing and dance and act at the same time,” she said. Furthermore, theater is full of “very kind people who pick you up when you’re down.”
’THEATER IS FAMILY’
As impressed as she was by their performance in Columbus, Cholovich is even more “proud of who they are as people,” she said. Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts are “exemplary leaders within our program, and they’ve brought so many people into it by making it a warm, welcoming place.”
“Theater is a family - one of the craziest families, but a family - and we want to grow that family,” Ashcraft said. “We want everyone to experience the magic of theater.”
In theater, Watts has “met so many people along the way,” said the president of the middle school’s thespian troupe. “I can impact people, and they can impact me, through drama.”
Stephens also values theater’s family atmosphere.
“Drama and theater is a place for everyone,” she said. “This is a time when kids can fall into the wrong crowd, and a lot of kids don’t feel they have a place.”
It certainly caught Cholovich’s attention how many of their classmates expressed authentic and unalloyed support for Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts.
“The best part to me is how they support each other,” she said. “They are a family and a team who support each other all the way.”
The entire experience has brought Ashcraft, Stephens and Watts closer together, Ashcraft said. “Now, we are Siren Sisters forever.”
Truly, “it’s friendship,” Watts said. “I see them as my best friends.”
Because they’re best friends, “it makes performing that much easier,” Stephens said. “We make it easier on each other.”
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