Rather than performing in the auditorium, theatre students hit the road to take part in various competitions at the Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie.

“Scarborough was a such a fun experience to partake in,” sophomore Kam Askew said. “We competed in lots of different events related to the Renaissance period including Shakespeare monologue competitions, and more. Personally I competed in the improv challenge which was super fun and a good challenge.”

Although the field trip was meant as a break for students, it also provided a new environment for them to improve their skills.   

“My favorite part would have to be all of the people working there and the scenery,” Askew said. “Theatre is all about jumping into different characters and telling a story and the workers there were just phenomenal at what they do maintaining their characters throughout the fair the entire time.”

The day was focused on experiencing the festival, and competing with other schools from around the state.

“We saw other groups performed different scenes from Macbeth than we did and there was judges and they critiqued us, and then we got to kind of go around and see other schools, and performances and kind of just experience everything,” Jacqueline Kazcala said. “There was an award ceremony at the end, and we ended up taking home second place for the scene, 3rd place for the heraldry, and first and second for prose and poetry.

Winning was an added bonus of a exciting day at the fair for the students.

“I mean bringing in any awards can be really good for it,” Kazcala said. “It helps bring more hype out for the theatre program, and it just a better representation to liberty itself, as a program.”

Theatre teacher Heather Willingham took the students in hopes of having a fun day to work on skills for theatre in a competitive atmosphere.

“It went really well, we had a lot of fun and we mostly stayed dry, we competed against some pretty heavy hitlers, so it was a good day,” Willingham said. “We walked away with several first and second places, and trophies and medals, and it’s a good way to make students feel good about their work.”

The festival also helped students fully understand and appreciate the history of theatre.

“This place is great for theatre kids to attend because a big part of theatre comes from the renaissance time period. Most famously Shakespeare it is important for theatre kids all over to be able to understand but feel for the work of him,” Askew said. “The atmosphere of this experience was great because not only are you around lots of theatre aspects in the fair, you are surrounded by theatre people just like you from all over Texas who come to enjoy the renaissance.”