Starkville High students win at virtual theatre festival
Starkville High School’s Theatre Department had a number of students walk away winners from this weekend’s Mississippi Theatre Association Virtual Festival.
The Mississippi Theatre Association (MTA) held individual competitions, with Christian Dunn winning the Solo Musical category.
SJ Brocato and Gwen Mcnutt also won the Duet Musical category while Mckenzie Gines and Will Norris taking third place.
Trisha Jordan is the Theatre Director for SHS, and she expressed how proud she was of her winning students.
“My students’ successes are truly gratifying. Whether it be applause or awards, these moments of recognition boost my students’ confidence. It is these moments that help me as an educator push through on more challenging days,” said Jordan. “They work incredibly hard year around to cultivate their craft. They hold themselves to unbelievably high standards, and these moments make all of their sacrifices worth it. Many of their peers chose not to participate this year since the conference was virtual. These particular students persevered no matter what platform the competition was held on. These specific awards brought several new triumphs. This is Christian’s first time winning first place in his category, and this is Mckenzie, SJ, and Gwen’s first time placing with this theatre organization.”
Jordan also said that just being a finalist in the statewide competition is a huge accomplishment in itself, and she is tremendously proud of her students’ hard work.
This weekend was the first time Christian Dunn won first place in his category, he was very thrilled about his accomplishment, and gave credit to the rest of the SHS Theatre Department.
“I have a lot of personal attachment to my award. I got second place at MTA last year and the year before, so to finally get the gold medal is really fulfilling,” said Dunn. “Honestly, I was not expecting my performance to do well at all. I was under quarantine when I had to record it, so the submission is literally just my mom filming me in my living room, and even after we finally decided we were done, my intrinsic
bias against my own performances left me feeling like I could have done better. Looking back, I’m actually super happy with what I was able to do, but when you’re in the moment and your throat hurts and you’ve been annoying all of your siblings with super loud singing in the middle of the house for like an hour, the feeling is a little different. Being a part of the Theatre Department at SHS is being a part of an incredible group of people. It’s weird how much talent we get in this department for being a minor subset of such a small city in a seemingly random state, but I’ve met some insanely
talented people who have gone through Troupe 1180. It’s a great environment.”
Other SHS finalists for the MTA Awards include Clinton Neely Jr. and Brady Mcnutt for the Male Acting category, Carter Mcilwain for the Solo Musical category, and Emma Woodward and Christian Dunne for the Duet Musical category.