The Minarets Drama Club recently returned from their annual field trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, organized by drama teacher Kayla West and Spanish teacher/dance coach Karen Urrutia-Polnitz. Our students joined others from Sanger and Clovis to watch five productions, including "Romeo and Juliet", "Sense and Sensibility", "Othello", "The Way the Mountain Moved", and "Love’s Labor’s Lost" as well as
have the opportunity to meet an actor from the festival, Steven Spencer, and participate in a backstage tour of the Elizabethan and Thomas Theatre. The Shakespeare Festival has been putting on plays and musicals since 1935, and this year is their eighty-third year. The Minarets Drama Club has been going for three years now and is planning on continuing this tradition for years to come.
After attending the festival, drama teacher Kayla West says that she is thinking about adding "Romeo and Juliet" onto her list of future performances for Minarets. Many of the students enjoyed the play and they shared lots of positive feedback. West says that "Shakespeare is a tricky task to tackle with high schoolers," but she is willing to take on a modified or shortened version of the tale for her students to perform.
Junior Emma Lynch, a third-year drama student, said that "the trip provides students the chance to have a lot of responsibility. Students are allowed to explore with small groups and be themselves." Lynch says that she will definitely be participating in the field trip next year as a senior since she has loved attending the last three years. In fact, she now has thoughts of pursuing a career in drama with Ashland, Oregon being an option for the future.