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Snyder High School student Jaden West took second in set desgin at the UIL competition with this set rendering. West is one of four SHS students who qualified for the state competition.
Four Snyder High School theatrical design team members advanced to state, and two placed in the top 3 of their categories.
Jaden West won second place in set design and Maria Martinez won third place in marketing.
Anna Hanley and Collin Mitten also advanced to state in costume design and marketing, respectively.
The students originally entered their work to the University Interscholastic League (UIL) competition in February.
Each student on the team created plates for one of four different areas of design — set design, marketing design, costume design or hair and makeup design. This year students statewide created designs for the play Life is a Dream.
Snyder theater director Clark Reed selected the 12 design submissions students would enter in December, and by February, felt they had a good chance at qualifying for state.
Snyder’s team competed against more than 700 other entries in the first round. Advancing to the state level were 21 set design entries, 18 marketing entries and 38 costume entries.
“The magnitude of this accomplishment by our students is huge,” Reed said. “Not only is this contest growing by the year and getting more and more prestigious, it is one of the most difficult and challenging UIL contests out there. Our community, our school and our students should be very proud of these designers.”
Because schools were closed, students were not able to apply their critiques from the first round to improve their work for the state competition.
Instead, the UIL used the virtual submissions from the first round.
This year’s results were an improvement from last year.
“We only had one advance to state last year and he placed sixth, this year we had four advance to state and two reach the podium,” he said. “Even for the students that didn’t advance to state, the work they submitted was fantastic and vastly improved from last year. I’m so proud.”
Reed said that he and the students had learned from earlier efforts and they would use what they’ve learned to take their designs to the next level.
“We have laid foundations of success in this contest and we have to keep raising the bar,” Reed said. “It is truly a lesson in learning from where you fall short and taking those lessons to heart. Each year the contest gets bigger and the work improves so it gets more difficult to advance to state.”