The San Juan Unified School District held a high school theater arts festival at American River College on April 1.  

The festival is held once a year in the spring and has taken place for the last 20 years.

Six different high school theater programs showed up to compete at this event.

Lisa Bonti, a teacher from Casa Robles High School, said “What we do is we compete. This is our time to look at other students and show our talent.”

There were about ten judges, and some have been coming back for years.

Deni Scofield, the festival chairperson, said in the opening speech that “this day is about celebrating, participating, listening and watching everyone.”

In the opening ceremony, each school stood up to introduce themselves and give background on plays they have and will put on.

The student competitions are supposed to be entirely student produced.

“We (Mira Loma students) are known for our original work that a lot of the students write themselves,” said Doniel Soto, a teacher from Mira Loma High School.

Some of the competitions included female and male monologues, student directed scenes and original monologues and scenes.

“We practice a lot.  We practice at lunch, after school and when we’re walking in the hallways.  It was a lot of practice,” said Kami Schneider, a student from Bella Vista High School and first-timer to the festival.

All of the events were held in Raef Hall and Davies Hall.  There was also a tour of the theater arts building.  Students had a lunch break where they could hang out at ARC, get a feel for the campus and also talk to other students.  

Senior scholarship auditions were also held for any seniors, for a chance to win money towards their theater career in college.

At the end of the day there was an awards ceremony, where schools received their awards from the competitions.