March 4, theater had their first performance of the production “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” and placed fourth in the UIL competition, while also getting ultimate advancement, meaning if another UIL team can’t perform, they’ll be able to.

Even though the performance and performers weren’t able to advance all the way, there were performers who were able to win awards- like sophomore Ben Newman, who won the All Star Cast Award. 

“Individually I think I did good,” Newman said. “I wouldn’t know myself, because I think it’s really hard to tell if you’re good or not. But people told me that I did great, so I wasn’t too surprised when I won the award.”

All of the actors and the backstage crew agree that they are proud of this performance and everyone in the show performed well.

“I think both nights the performance went really well,” sophomore and stage manager Fiona Massey said. “I think all the actors did really well, as well as everyone backstage.”

Everyone involved in the play is also proud of where they placed with their advancement.

“I was honestly very surprised,” sophomore Lea Flores said. “I didn’t think we were going to advance like that, but I’m happy with how we placed.”

Director Steve Carpentier is also very proud with how the show came out and how everyone performed in it. 

“I think we were very successful with it,” Carpentier said. “I loved the entire production and I thought it sparked a lot of interest. It definitely brought our community of actors together to really produce a well made show.”

Carpentier stated that he thought there were many different ways to present this play and the story it tells and that there were many things that they could do as a cast to help the students step up their game to be able to produce it. 

“I read it and I liked it,” Carpentier said. “I liked the challenges that it represented and I liked the fact that it had a good ensemble along with the fact that it was very fluid.”

The preparations for the play were a lot to handle, with practices almost every day building up to the first performance. 

“We had rehearsals from 4:30 to 6:30 basically every day leading up to the first performance,” Newman said. “I thought that everyone put in a lot of work during rehearsals, since everyone had to be there every day.”

All the hard work that was put into the play can be a lot to handle but all of the actors and crew managed to do it all and still put on a great performance.

“It’s a very physical thing, as well as a mental thing,” Newman said.  “And it can be really exhausting.”

Carpentier stated that even with all of the success the play got, there were some issues that they faced while preparing for the performance.

“There were many challenges,” Carpentier said. “We couldn’t get into the performance hall when we needed to and we ran into some casting issues where we had to make some changes. The biggest challenge was the ensemble all together, trying to make sure that they were cohesive, so we spent a lot of time developing it because they were so intricate in the moving parts of the show itself.” 

Massey also stated some of the challenges that she faces as a stage manager and how helping the directors and actors was difficult at times.

“It was very hard to find props for the show, as well as figure out what the directors wanted while also keeping everyone else organized and not getting them too upset over things,” Massey said. 

Even with all the difficulties and challenges both the cast and crew faced, they are all still very proud of the performance that they put on and where they placed in the competition.

“I think the students really showed us what Lamar theater can and will be in the future,” Carpentier said.