Acting students took over the annual Ohlone Theater Festival the weekend of March 21, leaving with two first place awards, one second place and one honorable mention.

The festival was hosted at Ohlone College where Northern California high schools competed in categories such as musicals, scenes, monologues, costumes and poster design.  In total about 800 students performed twice in total in front of six judges and other students from local schools.

“I wanted to see what the acting at other schools was like and how we compared to them,” said advanced acting student senior Joey Moyer.

The acting students left the competition with junior Julia Kelly taking first place for a comedic monologue in the female category and junior Saam Niami Jalinous taking first place in the male category. Senior Amy Kelleher, senior Sophie Nadler and junior Tyler Ellis won first place as well for their short comedic scene. Kelleher also placed second for a comedic female monologue.

“It was cool to get to perform in a competitive setting with other people who were into theatre, and winning just made it extra special” Kelly said. “I was really surprised and honored to win.”

Junior Tyler Ellis said their success was due to their carefree attitude.

“The common Piedmont mindset when going to Ohlone is ‘Who cares? Let’s have fun,’ which can prove refreshing when juxtaposed with the intensity of some of the other schools competing,” Ellis said.

The competition involved many performances from the participating students, but emphasized student interaction which took the pressure off for many actors.

“I liked being with the class and supporting everyone, and the students there from other schools were really nice, which made it less stressful” Kelly said.

After two performances on the first day of the competition, students were selected into the top six of each category and given an opportunity to perform in front of a larger audience for first, second or third place.

Advanced acting student junior Landon Campbell said even though it is a competition, students were very supportive of each other and for the most part were there to have fun.

Although there is a limit to the number of students from Acting 2 and Advanced Acting who can compete depending on sign ups and spots available, it was offered to all students in the two classes and anyone was allowed to go to watch the performances.

“It was all fairly spontaneous,” Moyer said. “I [was called] a few days before the applications were due and was asked if I wanted to be in a dramatic scene, and I agreed.”

Students enjoy going to the festival to not only see other productions and talented students, but for the opportunity to make friends with people from other schools.

“I like how students have a ton of freedom to walk around and watch whatever they want with their friends,” Moyer said.