The Edina High School Thespians have a flair for the dramatic, and people are beginning to notice.
Recently the high school theatre program was awarded 11 SpotLight Awards for its fall musical presentation of Urinetown: The Musical. These awards, presented by The Hennepin Theatre Trust, are given to productions and individuals for outstanding performances.
Urinetown is a comedy set in a future world where water shortages cause people to pay to use the bathroom and keep an evil corporation in business with their cash. The story also pays homage to all the great musicals with choreography and musical numbers that, according to director Tony Matthes, are similar in difficulty to West Side Story and Les Miserables.
“All of these awards were really an honor and it was a great show to do,” Matthes says. “We worked so hard on so many things for that show. A week before the show it was amazing how the kids just figured the whole thing out and when I saw that, I knew that we would get outstanding overall performance and I knew the characters who would get [the awards].”
The productions SpotLight Awards include: Outstanding Overall Performance, Outstanding Performance by a Student Orchestra and Outstanding Overall Production.
Patrick Solberg and Sarah Sandberg were awarded Outstanding Leading Role. Allie Arens and Talia Edelheit received the Outstanding Supporting Role award, while James Neville, Danielle Kellogg and Nika Wallschlaeger received an honorable mention. Aly Beveridge and Samantha Weiman were also given honorable mentions in the category of ‘Featured Role.’
Edina’s winners, along with winners from other area high school theatre programs, will be celebrated at the Orpheum Theatre on June 11.
According to Matthes, the community’s response to Urinetown was incredible.
“A lot of people said that they were impressed with how in-tune to their characters the students were,” Matthes says. “Some who had only three or four lines onstage but were great overall actors received their awards.”
The group’s more serious side will be featured in their upcoming plays: The Diviners and Burial at Thebes.
Matthes, who is directing The Diviners, says he’s waited for a strong group of students to do this particular play for awhile.
The Diviners is a tragedy where the characters are all inherently good. The story is set in a small town during the dust-bowl era. It is called The Diviners because the main character, Buddy, is able to find water. The source of his special talent, and the problems that come with it, is revealed in the play.
“Many of us find ourselves in a similar situation to a lot of the characters in the play. We’re all searching for something, especially in these economic times. Whether what we’re searching for is to do more with less, reconnect with our families, or find a meaning or purpose, it is noble to keep searching,” Matthes explains. “It also teaches us that tragic things happen to good people. It’s just good theater.”
Burial at Thebes is directed by Fred Cheng and will be entered in the Minnesota State High School League one-act-play sectionals competition, which Edina High School hosts this year.
The show is a Greek tragedy, which was part of the draw for Cheng because he enjoyed making something old and foreign into a contemporary and emotionally relevant production.
“The competition is kind of a double-edged sword, which makes it exciting, but also adds a different tension to the performance,” Cheng says. “It makes it feel like an Olympic event or something.”
Go See The Show:
The Diviners: Jan. 19-21, Edina Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m.
Burial At Thebes: Jan. 27-28, Edina Performing Arts Center, 7;30 p.m.
