Theater students took part in the Texas Thespian Festival last Thursday-Saturday in Dallas with senior Tallon Rock and junior Grace Raber advancing in the competition and earning the chance to compete at the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska.

“It feels pretty good that I advanced,” Rock said. “I honestly didn’t think I would even though I put a lot of time and effort into my monologues. I’m very grateful and honored that we get this opportunity.”

Raber shared similar feelings and said that she was also surprised when she learned that she had advanced.

“I didn’t think I’d advance,” Raber said. “There were a lot of people, and a lot of them singing the same song as me, and I knew people competing that are really good, so there’s always that doubt.”

Aside from competitions, theater students were also able to attend workshops and watch performances.

“I went to as many classes as I could and saw a bunch of shows,” Raber said. “Even though I’ve been doing [theater] forever, there’s always more you can learn.”

Theater director, Heather Willingham said while their main goal was to learn from the workshops provided at the festival and enjoy themselves, their success in competition was a pleasant surprise.

“I’m very proud of them,” Willingham said. “I was a little shocked simply because I didn’t know what the competition was going to be. We went to compete with the idea of ‘let’s compete just to see what happens’ and the advancing was just the icing on the cake.”