The Grim Brother Spectaculathon is a play the theater program has been working on since Christmas break. Rita McLary, director of theater, entered the program into the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association (MIFA) competition. The thespians competed in districts, then moved on to regionals with the title of straight superiors; this is the highest rating that can be earned.
“I was impressed the competition was so student-centered. I thought this would be a cool experience and see if this is something that the student likes to do or not,” said director Rita McLary.
MIFA regionals will be held on Feb. 3 at St. John’s High School. The competitions are judged by several judges, all of whom have extensive training and theater experience. Following a rubric that has all of the points of acting and technical timing, they will determine which 12 schools will make state.
Technical people have to be totally silent—no talking—and if something goes wrong, they have to signal to each other. Not just the actors are putting in hard work; so is the tech crew, who is being judged on a rubric as well.
“The technical people have to work in complete silence, which is unusual; you think moving a set is anything but silence,” said McLary.
The MIFA competition, which is split into two categories: solo and ensemble, is for the music portion, which individuals can earn if they do something individually for the show. These people can earn an award or a medal. The other category is judging the whole play and how the thespians perform as a group.
The thespians worked hard on the play to make it to regionals. With long hours of rehearsal and set construction, the show is ready to go on. One of these thespians is senior Calvin Poll; his role is one of the narrators as well as Johannes. Poll has been in the theater for only a couple years, with his 8th grade Adams family being canceled due to COVID. Poll is back in theater and ready to take on regionals with the rest of the thespians.
“My main anxiety was being able to remember my lines, so what I did was write down all of them on note cards and have my mom read the script to me like a million times,” said senior Calvin Poll.