Lights, camera, action! Approximately thirty drama students participated in the Cal Poly Drama Festival for the first time. Students divided into two groups to perform. Mission Viejo High school took top honors at the festival.

California Polytechnic University Pomona Drama Festival is an annual event intended to celebrate theatre arts and encourage and cultivate future actors, designers and technicians. The festival was hosted by the drama department last friday. Various Southern California high schools prepared two one-act plays, which are short plays under ten minutes. There were also workshops on campus for the students, covering topics such as improvisation, audition techniques, scene painting and makeup.

“We always start with paper and edits and discuss characters and then try to get on our feet, start with ideas. I try to keep it, I would say, organic. People add ideas,” drama teacher Cassandra Gaona said.

Students received their scripts and roles in the beginning of December. They edited lines, rehearsed and perfected their characters almost every day in class since.

“My group in particular is full of students who always have amazing ideas, which we incorporate into our one act that end up making our piece even better than we thought it could be,” advanced drama student and technician senior Alexa Senker said. “I’m really proud of how hard my group has been working. My fellow actors/classmates are so incredibly talented, and I can’t wait for them to get to show that talent and hard work off.”

The judges picked six of the best one-act plays and ranked them for finals. There are also awards for best actors and actresses. Although they did not place in any, students said they were still very proud for their work and enjoyed attending the workshops.

Sophomore actor Abby Steinberg recounted her first experience at the festival.

“Overall, even though we didn’t place, we think we performed really well. It was our first time at that festival and the odds were against us, so I was proud of our performance,” Steinberg said.