HARLINGEN — They gave it their all, and they got it all.
Three Harlingen High School South students portrayed the domestic struggles of a husband, wife and son so well they’ve put the school on the map.
They won the UIL 6A One-Act Play State Championship in Austin last week. This is the first team UIL state event the Harlingen school district has won.
“I feel honored to have been a part of such a collaborative, supportive and compassionate cast and crew,” said Savannah Smith, 18.
“I’m humbled that the innumerable hours spent resulted in this wonderful success.”
James Gracia, 18, said words couldn’t describe his feeling about such ground-breaking success.
“Over my four years of being a One-Act UIL participant, I have experienced and learned so much,” said James, who played Clifford.
“If anyone had witnessed the amount of hard work our entire cast, directors and team put into this production, they too would feel that it was most deserved,” he said.
Leah Ann Ince, instructional coach for Speech, Drama and Debate for the Harlingen school district, totally concurred.
“I think it was the whole package,” she said. “I think it was the acting, the set design, the lighting design, the story, the relationship, the complete package.”
The group’s instructor, Meagan Conley, congratulated the hard work of everyone in the production.
“They went out on that stage and they knew it was going to be the last time they’d ever perform,” she said. “Instead of being nervous they just put all of every competition they had been in, every performance that we had done. I was so proud of them.”
Without the whole team, success would have been possible, said Christian Ingram, who played Gene.
“Being state champions was a culmination of everyone’s efforts, and I genuinely believe that if anything had been different, we might not have made it so far,” he said. “We picked the best show to display the amazing talent we had this year.”
Conley thanked everyone for their support.
“It was wonderful to see the outpour of parents and administration there to support us,” she said. “The RGV has incredibly talented directors and students. This strong competition only makes the arts in our community stronger.”
Perhaps such accolades give the term “group effort” a whole new meaning, with this group being not only the students but the administrators and community at large.
Three students from Harlingen High School South won the UIL 6A One-Act Play State Championship in Austin last week.
The students, Savannah Smith, James Gracia and Christian Ingram, performed “Side Man” about the domestic struggles of a musician, his wife and their son.
The last time a one-act play from the Rio Grande Valley won a state championship was in the 1960s when San Benito took the lead. The one before that was in 1935 with Mission High School.
Savannah also won all-star cast and James won best actor as well as the Samuel French Award.
