The West Virginia Theatre Association (WVTA) festival began on Friday and schools all around West Virginia are prepared one acts, monologues, and built tech projects to compete. This year WVTA was hosted at Fairmont State University. Wheeling Park High School had students competing individually but also have came together to compete with a one act play written by senior, Sydney Willson.

Grace Mull won Outstanding Performer in the monologue competition. Oliver Ortega won Honorable Mention for performance of a monologue. Hailey Hess won first place in makeup application and Reagan Pockl won first place in set construction. Sydney Willson was recognized for her playwriting skills.

Having a one act show written by a fellow student has really brought this group together and has made their story of mental health awareness come to life. They hope to go further after this conference to the International Thespian Festival later this year with the one act play as well. Students have put in a lot of hard work and are excited to see their efforts pay off.

“We have been working really hard at this show since the beginning of the semester… I think what we are really facing with this competition is the unknown,” said Katie Redd.

Mrs. Redd shares that the students have worked nonstop even in the summer prior when the show was written.

Thespian president and four year active member of Park Players, Grace Mull, attended WVTA and competed in the one act category, the monologue slam, and she is submitted a board for costume design.

“I’m very excited because watching the one acts last year it just looked so fun and I wanted to be more involved and actually compete. Last year I feel like we were just taking in a lot of information and I feel like we are confident enough to go in this year with the one act and actually competing. I feel like we’ve been doing really well, so I’m excited” said Mull.

Grace explains that being able to go and observe last year has really built up the anticipation for this year.