Seventy AVPA students from Theater Performance and Technical Theater attended the California Educational Theatre Association (CETA) weekend workshop a few weeks ago. Held in Rancho Cucamonga, CETA is an annual theater festival and competition for high school students from all over the greater Los Angeles region. Fall productions from high schools in four areas in the Southern California Regions – Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire, and San Diego County – are adjudicated.
In addition to fall adjudications, the festival weekend offers a variety of opportunities that encourage artistic growth for both students and teachers. These offerings include workshops led by industry professionals, adjudicated scene competition, space for BIPOC students and educators, and scholarship opportunities. The three-day Festival showcases four MainStage plays selected from the four regions.
CCHS Senior Ginger Anderson-Willis took home first place in the “Trailer” category for her one-minute showcase of AVPA’s Fall 2022 production of CLUE. Ginger spent three years in AVPA Performance Theater, before transferring to AVPA Film in her senior year. (She also won second place at CETA last year for her Yellow Face trailer.) The CETA accolade, which comes with a $300 scholarship, seemed a fitting cap to her AVPA tenure as both a theater and film student.
Awards aside, Ginger said the best is “to experience theatre so intensively for three days.”
Senior Millie Reed, in AVPA Technical Theater, has a passion for stage lighting. She got the most out of attending the career workshop and meeting professionals in the lighting industry. “We got to see some really awesome industry standard lighting consoles.”
It’s no wonder a career in technical theater is on Millie’s mind. After graduating from CCHS, she will be doing a three-year paid apprenticeship in technical theatre and event production in Cologne (Köln), Germany, at the largest public theatre, Schauspiel Köln.
The highlights for Senior AVPA Theater Performance student Jones Hodar included “watching so many incredible shows from other high schools around Southern California.”
“I attended as a freshman and now as a senior,” said Jones, who missed sophomore and junior years during the pandemic. Now waiting to hear from colleges, “It’s so much more applicable now as a senior. The career workshop was excellent.”
AVPA placed fifth overall in the LA district for Best Performance for its fall stage production of CLUE . AVPA Theatre Creative Director of Theater Lee Hanson, pictured, noted that LA is the most competitive of the regions.
The trip is funded in part by donations to the AVPA Foundation and by CCEF.
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