Shiner OAP wins State Championship

  • Shiner One Act Play won the State Championship at the 2A Conference. Pictured are, back row, left to right, directors Linda Truman and Lauren Selzer, Freshman Backstage Manager Madeline Collins, Senior crew member Jackson Welch, Sophomore crew member Jillian Dierlam, Junior crew member Jansen Flores, Senior crew member Ben Thomas, Junior crew member Aiden Collins, Senior crew member Hayleigh Burns, and directors Michelle and Eric Winkenwerder; bottom row, left to right, Freshman crew member Megan Burns, Fre
    Shiner One Act Play won the State Championship at the 2A Conference. Pictured are, back row, left to right, directors Linda Truman and Lauren Selzer, Freshman Backstage Manager Madeline Collins, Senior crew member Jackson Welch, Sophomore crew member Jillian Dierlam, Junior crew member Jansen Flores, Senior crew member Ben Thomas, Junior crew member Aiden Collins, Senior crew member Hayleigh Burns, and directors Michelle and Eric Winkenwerder; bottom row, left to right, Freshman crew member Megan Burns, Fre
  • Mark Cormier crafted the telescope which was pivotal for the play.
    Mark Cormier crafted the telescope which was pivotal for the play.

    The Shiner High School One Act Play has earned the title of State Champion at the 2A Conference held at the Austin Performing Arts Center. 
    The play was called Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson. 
    “I played Peter Shaw, one of the main characters, in the play,” Senior Patrick Egan said. “The play is about a girl named Henrietta. She doesn’t have much money and her father is a pastor. She gets a job at Harvard University to go work at the Observatory there. She falls in love with my character.”
    Henrietta then makes a huge discovery about the stars, according to Egan. This story is historical fiction and based on astronomers Williamina Fleming, Annie Cannon, and Henrietta Leavitt. 
    There were five cast members and eight crew members who assisted in this play. 
    Egan earned the title of All Star Cast at the State Meet. Senior Brianna Sofka, who played Margaret Leavitt, was named Honorable Mention All Star Cast while Senior Amelia Pohler, who played Henrietta Leavitt, was named Best Performer.
    “No matter what would have happened, I’m extremely proud of these kids,” Coach and Director Michelle Winkenwerder said. “There’s a lot of work that goes on and I’m hard on them sometimes. I’m their biggest fan and their biggest critic.”
    “I am up in the light booth, and I’ve been able to see all of our shows,” Senior Benjamin Thomas said. “After our performance at State, it was undoubtedly our best performance ever. When third and second place got called, I knew there was no way we could be fourth place. From our very first contest to our very last, I was able to see how much we have progressed. (In our State performance) it was so mind blowing that I just knew we had to be first.”
    The last time Shiner went to State was in 2013 with their play The Giver.
    There were 48 schools competing at the State Championships in conferences 1A to 6A this year. Of those 48 schools, they have made at least 202 appearances prior to this year with Shiner being one of six schools that have made 10 or more appearances.
    The odds of the chance a random school in a six school district without a zone contest has to advance to the state is about 4.17%, or once every 25 years.  Shiner has been to seven under the current directors.
    Schools that make the state meet have a 1.56% chance to be ranked in the top three at state.
    And to win it all, it’s .52% chance.  If all advancement was random, the average school should win state once every 200 years, according to Winkenwerder.
    This is significant because, unlike sports, the competition is based on the opinions of three judges.
    “This is an incredible feat for us because in OAP everything is subjective,” Winkenwerder said. “To survive that much through five rounds of judges shows how incredibly hard it is to bring this trophy home. 
    Almost every single judge has commented on how real these relationships in the play were. Add in the phenomenal job of our crew, everything was flawless.”
    There was a lot of money spent on the set and some set pieces were homemade. For example, Mark Cormier crafted a beautiful telescope which was the center symbolism to the play. 
    “A lot of money goes into OAP,” Winkenwerder said. “Not a ton of 2A schools had the technical aspect that we have in this show that gives the extra ‘wow’ factor. The opening sequence is music, lights, and a projection that all come up together and it was amazing to hear the audience collectively gasp. 
    There’s a point of the show where a great big, eclipsed moon comes up behind (cast members Egan and Pohler.)”
    The cast members had to do their homework for this competition. The role of Henrietta had ovarian cancer, so Pohler had to research where the cancer hurts and how a woman would respond to that. The character was also hard of hearing, so Pohler had to pick up traits to respond appropriately. 
    The cast and crew also took a field trip to an observatory in Needville and they met astronomers. 
    “We received lots of information from that trip,” Winkenwerder said. “A lot of judges have commented on how realistic they were even in the way the actors stood and spoke.” 
    Some of the adults who assisted in this play were Linda Truman, Lauren Selzer, and Eric Winkenwerder. 
    Winkenwerder is proud that these countless hours of rehearsal paid off.