Students in UIL Theatrical Design made Redhawk theatre history as they qualified for state, receiving a perfect score in semifinals. This team of Redhawks made up four of the nine state qualifiers for UIL Theatrical Design from across the district.

As part of the contest, students had to design a wide range of technical elements, including lighting, props, set design, hair and makeup, and costumes, for the play Axoloris by Sean Mendelson.

“So I did light design,” state qualifier, freshman Moksha Uppalapati said. “So, most of my lights were based off of [the] set. I had to collaborate a lot with my set designer, Riya, for color palettes and everything. And I also had to collaborate with my hair and makeup designer, and also like the costume designer, so that we can see how my light looked on them. My part of the design was pretty collaborative.”

The team included Uppalapati in lighting design, alongside Riya Pathiri Narayanan in set design, junior Nathan Christo in costume design, and returning state champion, sophomore Karthika Menon in hair and makeup design.

“My favorite part of the process is coming up, which is going to state and meeting a bunch of people because it’s always fun to meet people from other schools and get to talk about theatrical design and some common interests,” Menon said. “Being state champ was a very big surprise last year, but it’s going to be very fun this year, cause everyone’s going. It’s more hopeful than anything, because I just really hope we place top three at least again.”

The Redhawks will leave The Nest to compete at Austin on May 16-17.