Superior, excellent, good, fair, or poor. The anticipation of what a student will receive on their individual event can be a nerve wracking time. Troupe 5590 traveled to Gibbs High School on Dec 7 to represent Palm Harbor University High School for the District 4 competition. Students prepared their own individual events that ranged from solo musicals to pantomimes. This was Kendall Albert’s (‘22) second time attending the event and performed in a duet scene with Juliette Lynch (‘20). After they performed their scene, the two were happy to receive a superior, but another surprise would come later when the judges announced their honorable mentions and critics choice.

“When I found out my duet scene got honorable mention it felt so amazing,” Albert said. “I almost started crying considering the fact that I’m younger and I haven’t had that much experience acting.” 

Duet scenes were one of the smaller events at Districts with the large group musicals performed with up to 16 students. One of the groups performed “Land of Yesterday” from the musical Anastasia. Dylan Curry (‘22) was one of the students who was selected to be in the number. With a large group of students and choreography to learn, the group had to rehearse.

“We were really short on time to rehearse, so having everybody there was very tough,” Curry said. “When the results were released we were all pretty upset because we didn’t see our name on the paper. Then we realized they had just put the wrong name on it, and we had gotten honorable mention. It was so relieving because all the hard work we put in paid off.” 

While many people were performing their scenes or songs, other members of the troupe were helping make sure the event ran smoothly. Troupe 5590 helps run the District 4 event along with Osceola High School. Students make sure all the badges are handed out, the judges are taken care of and all events are scheduled properly. Emily Reinhold (‘20) has done crew last year, and when she joined again this year she knew the challenges that she was going to face.

“Being a part of crew involves lots of hard labor. I was running around the entire campus the whole time we were there,” Reinhold said. “However, it was very rewarding to see so many of our troupe members receive superiors and awards and know our hard work was worth it .”