Lights, camera, action! 

As the spring semester commences, many students across all electives prepare for the University Interscholastic League (UIL) season. 

For tech theatre students participating in Theatrical Design UIL, students will choose one of six design categories: marketing, set, lights, costumes, hair & makeup, and prop design. Teachers will submit worthy designs to the state, and of those the state will choose a select amount of designs in each category. 

“It allows students to focus their skill refinement as designers,” tech director Aaron Yowell said. “They’re asked to design one aspect of the play, not the entire technical scope of the script. Since they get to choose what aspect they want to design, it highlights what they love to [do] and they [can] dive deep with their artistic [and] planning skills.”

The selected show varies from one another drastically each year, and for junior and 2024 Individual Hair & Makeup Design State Champion Karthika Menon, the difficulty of each one fluctuates depending on its script.

“I’m very excited about this year’s show, King Stag, especially with the prompt given as it complements the script nicely and allows designers to think creatively from both a design and storytelling perspective,” Menon said. “ This show is definitely a lot easier to design than last year’s show, Axoloris, as it was a very difficult script to justify design-wise, [but] a bit harder to design than the musical two  years ago, Hadestown, when I won state.”

Though some students are competing individually, they often need assistance from others. For senior and first time competitor Lexi Holding, she is excited to finally compete with her own designs.

“My sophomore year I was the model for the state winning Hair & Makeup design,” Holding said. “After seeing how proud they were of the work they accomplished and how amazing it was, it made me want to take on the challenge.”