The Wetumpka High School Theater Guild has a nickname — #lunchroom bunch.
The name stems from the extreme amount of time the students of the theater guild spend in the school’s lunchroom for theater production. But the nickname doesn’t fool anyone as the guild has now won back-to-back Best in Shows at the Alabama Conference of Theatre State Trumbauer Show. It’s third Best in Show in the last four festivals.
It’s a feat that amazes guild director and WHS theater teacher Jeff Glass.
“There are schools that never get one,” Glass said. “Getting two in a row and then three out of the last four is incredible. That is on top of graduating 35 seniors last year.”
Monica Velma was one of the seniors who graduated. Two years in a row she won the state’s best actor at the competition.
Glass said some thought this would be a rebuilding year but the entire guild has put in the work for years not to let quality slide when seniors graduate.
“They all have bought into what we are doing,” Glass said. “They won’t let losing seniors be an excuse. There is a standard that has to be maintained. They bought into what we are doing and they delivered.”
The Trumbauer festival is based around groups setting up, performing and disassembling a one-act play in 45 minutes. Everything for the show has to fit in a 10-foot by 10-foot area before being opened on the stage.
The Wetumpka Guild performed The Play that Goes Wrong — a play within a play about anything and everything that could go wrong in a production from props failing to forgetting lines.
“It’s hard to do well,” Glass said. “You would think it would be easy to do a production on stage where most everything is a mistake.”
Glass said the acting has to be especially clean as judges and audience members can tell the difference.
What’s most incredible about the performance is it almost didn’t happen in the first place. A bout of COVID-19 struck the group about a month before the district qualifying competition, limiting practices.
But after qualifying for state, props and other stage material were completely redone and the show improved.
Another unique aspect about Wetumpka’s production was that it didn't have a large ensemble. Only nine actors were seen in front of the curtain.
“We knew we did well at state when the entire auditorium stood up and cheered after we performed,” Glass said. “It was not a fake cheer.”
The judges agreed as well, giving the Wetumpka High School Theater Guild a Best in Show.
The guild had six named to the state all-star cast: Georgia Wyatt, Javon Ryerson, Charles Lawrence, Eliana Bates, Joseph Law and Gracie Arnold.
On the individual side, Atlas Barr was named the Mary Nell Sloan Endowed Technical Theatre Scholarship winner. It’s the first time Wetumpka has taken that award. Barr also won the state championship in prop design.
Rebecca Wohlford and Sabrina Carestiato combined to win the top award for Ensemble Pantomime, and Eliana Bates was named the state champion in the musical dramatic solo.
Gracie Arnold and Gracie Rowe were runners up in Jukebox Musical and makeup design, respectively.
Another thing that makes the Best in Show and individual accomplishments even greater is the program doesn’t have a proper shop and stage to construct sets and props and hang lights, curtains and other items essential to most theater productions.
A true performing arts center has been a point of discussion for years but funds have never been available.
“These kids proved time and again that they deserve it,” Glass said. “If you look at the schools that we're always finishing with, the Bob Jones, Hoovers and such; they're light years ahead of us in resources, but we are always there. Imagine what we could do with a proper space.”
