CHARLOTTE — Members of the Fine Arts Department at Charlotte Catholic High School brought home honors from the 2016 North Carolina Theatre Conference’s High School Play Festival, held at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte Oct. 28-29. The performing arts program, led by Dottie Tippett and Marcus Riter, made the school and community proud with presentations of “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon,” for which they earned a good rating, and “The Damned Spot,” for which they won an excellent rating.
They also won the Festival Spirit Award, as well as the Theatre Arts Award for Excellence in Ensemble Movement (Annalise Wolf, Sofia Marin and Elizabeth Gregory in “The Damned Spot”), and Excellence in Acting (Eleanore Miechkowski in “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon”).
For more than 30 years, the NCTC High School Play Festival has strengthened arts education in schools by bringing curriculum to life, challenging students to do their best, and contributing to the development of future audiences for live performing arts. This year, 3,000 students from 90 schools performed 126 plays.
The atmosphere at the Play Festival is positive and exciting, with a 45-minute time limit per performance that includes setting up, performing the play and clearing the stage. Following their performance, students join their peers in the cheering audience to receive feedback from professional actors and directors.
— Carolyn Tillman