Travis thespians set sights on second state title
Travis High School could win its second state championship in University Interscholastic League one-act play competition as well as the first 6A crown with scenes from Warren Leight’s “Side Man,” winner of the 1999 Tony Award for best play.
Travis is one of eight 6A finalists at the May 28 event in Austin at Bass Concert Hall on the University of Texas campus.
Two years ago, Travis struck gold as the champion among 5A schools, in which more than 1,000 schools fielded plays, with students advancing through five levels of competition: zone, district, area, region and state. At each level, a judge or judging panel awarded individual acting honors and selected two productions to advance.
Travis won with scenes from Israel Horovitz’s “Unexpected Tenderness” and theater teacher Tommy Grubbs, who’s primarily a visual artist, instructing students how to use makeup to “age” teenagers to portray 90-year-old characters.
“Side Man” presented a different challenge for Grubbs.
“The mom, for example, goes from ages 53 to 18 to 45 to 53,” he explained. “It takes a really skilled actress to portray that without any makeup changes,” said Grubbs. “I saw ‘Side Man’ as an opportunity to throw out our makeup skills and say, ‘It’s not always the makeup, it’s not always about special effects,’ and focus on the acting.”
Travis advanced from regionals to state along with a highly theatrical production of “The White Snake” by Daw-
son High School in Pearland. Its director, Tim Unroe, said that Travis High senior Tiffany Abreu, 17, who stars as Terry in “Side Man,” “might be the best high school actress I have ever seen. She is amazing.”
The daughter of Adnerys Acevedo of Richmond has racked up prizes throughout the UIL season, including best actress at the regional contest April 25 in Pasadena.
In “Side Man,” Terry is the mentally unstable, neglected wife of an immature horn player, Gene.
Describing the couple, another musician says, “The rocks in her head fit the holes in his.”
But the playwright, in his author’s note, warned that the actress who plays Terry “should not embrace her craziness.”
“Instead, fight for Terry and her side of the story,” he explained.
Jose Sabillon, 18, the son of Marta and Ramon Sabillon of Richmond, plays Clifford, who narrates the show as a “memory play,” said Grubbs.
Miles Agee, 17, the son of Joy Agee and Michael LeBlanc of Richmond, plays Gene. Don Maines is a freelance writer