The PCA theatre students recently competed against 26 schools at the Palmetto Dramatics Association (PDA)/SC State Thespian joint festival and received an outstanding response from the judges. The festival was held at Francis Marion University in Florence last weekend, February 22-24. In the PDA festival, Alec Grooms, Elizabeth Stepp, Stephanie Walden, and Jasmine James received a near-perfect score for the production Doubt, A Parable by John Patrick Shanley. They also won an Ensemble Acting award and a special award for playing older characters. Whitney Sullivan won an Honorable Mention for “The Product,” even though over 30 plays were entered

In the Thespian festival, Alec Grooms and Elizabeth Stepp won first place in duet acting and were runners-up to Crystal Stewart and Torron Grimes, who won first place in duet musical. As winner and runner-up, they have been invited to the International Thespian Festival to be held at the University of Nebraska in June. Torron Grimes also was runner-up in solo musical, and Rory Gilbert made it to the final round in solo musical. Finally, Elizabeth Stepp received the first ever “Blair Beasely Award of Excellence” $1000 scholarship. She was also awarded a $1000 Thespian Scholarship for Theatre Education. Overall, the PCA theatre students performed excellently at the joint festival, and are looking forward to the International Thespian Festival

Captions for Pictures:

Picture 1 — PCA drama students show off their awards.

Picture 2 — Eizabeth Stepp receives her $1000.00 scholarship award from Dr. Anne Fletcher.