While for most students, Spring Break was a time to go on vacation and relax, for members of the Olympics Heights Theatre Department it was time for them to showcase their hard work at the Florida State Thespian Festival.

The trip to Tampa was four days of nonstop work, fun, and of course, love for theatre. Many milestones took place during the 2019 Thespian Festival for OH’s Troupe 4992, including the seniors’ last performances with their best friends, freshmen’s first time ever going on such a journey, mainstaging the departments dramatic and jaw dropping performance of Curious Incident of The Dog in the Nighttime, and celebrating senior Ashton Bianchi and junior Brian Araujo’s Top Honors award they received for their duet pantomime Adam and Steve.

The hilarious pantomime Adam and Steve is a spin-off on one of the most famous stories ever told: that of Adam and Eve. This version, however, is very comedic, strange, and far less moral than the original tale. Bianchi and Araujo both came together to write and create this unique piece that had audience members laughing non-stop throughout the performance.

Top Honors is not an easy title to earn by any means. To be rewarded with Top Honors at State, the performers need to have the highest composite score out of all the performances the judges have seen that day. So, Bianchi and Araujo had to count on a lot more than their natural talent. Each of them spent hours on end making sure they told a clear story and were in sync with each other’s body movements. Araujo said the hardest task out of everything was “trying to find the right sound effects and songs that would fit our crazy ideas.”

Since a pantomime can’t have any talking or props involved, sound can easily help audience members to understand the story line. Bianchi and Araujo both worked together to create a sound track that would effectively carry their story as well as bring their wild ideas to life.

Even though the process involved much hard work, Bianchi and Araujo both agree it was an amazing journey every step of the way. “The rehearsal process was a lot of fun! Taking such a weird concept and bringing it to life was a really cool experience,” Bianchi comments “While making the sound was difficult task, we were able to find sounds that executed our very odd story perfectly. My favorite part of the process was thinking about all the ways we could play with our idea and brainstorming jokes that would go along with it was we wrote out the story.”

Bianchi and Araujo had a lot on their plates this year at the State competition. Both were involved in four other individual events as well as being leads in Curious Incident. Still, the two actors put their all in every performance they were in and enjoyed every second they were on the stage. Bianchi comments, “My states experience this year was crazy! I can’t thank the states festival enough for providing such great opportunities, alongside Mrs. Coyle who helped us [get to] where we are today.”