WAYNE – Following a third-place finish at the 2020 NSAA Play Production Class B Championships, the Wayne High district championship performance can be viewed this weekend.
Wayne High’s “10 Ways to Survive the End of the World” won the B-3 District on December 4 at Ramsey Theatre on the campus of Wayne State College. The Blue Devils then finished third place from Johnny Carson Theatre in Norfolk on December 11 at state.
Julie Osnes completed her fourth year as the director for Wayne High Play Production as this year’s assistant director was Dwaine Spieker. Wayne was the first performance and Osnes said that opening performance is a hard placing as they didn’t want to be forgotten throughout the day.
“The judge’s decisions were pretty solid,” said Osnes. “They had York as first place and Concordia in second and then we were a solid third. Two of the judges said we were third.”
The Class B champion went to York “A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder” while Omaha Concordia placed runner-up with their “The Last Roundup of the Guacamole Queens”.
There were a handful of times where performers had to memorize a different role with students being out due to COVID quarantine.
“There are so many people in this particular play that had a huge role,” Osnes added. “Because it was supposed to be for a deep cast. We had a really great cast and these kids deserved it, they deserved to go to state because we had a lot of really talented kids.”
Outstanding performance awards nominated by the championship judging panel went to Christopher Woerdemann, Treyton Blecke, Liam Spieker, Dylan Anderson, Mason Ley, Christopher Rutenbeck and Mackenzie McKenna.
A link was posted on the Wayne Community Schools Facebook page Wednesday to view the district championship performance.
The school is working with Broadway On Demand and Playscripts for anyone to view the district championship production. Cost is $5 per person or $20 for a family to watch the play production as many times as they want for 24-hours from the evening of Saturday, December 26 – Sunday, December 27.
“That fundraiser will be to earn money for next year’s play production,” Osnes added. “To build sets, do all that kind of stuff; buy costuming. All of those things take a little bit of money but you know $800, $900 to put on a good play production.”
Wayne High will lose 12 seniors as Osnes has started to read up on a few plays.
“I know I had a huge talent pool in those seniors so it will be a little bit different,” said Osnes. “But I also know there’s some really great talent in a few of the younger kids and usually there’s a surprise.”
State Champions:
Class A: Gretna; runner-up: Omaha Skutt Catholic
Class B: York; runner-up: Omaha Concordia
Class C1: Wausmond (Wausa-Osmond); runner-up: Archbishop Bergan
Class C2: Creighton; runner-up: Loup City
Class D1: Pawnee City; runner-up: Stapleton
Class D2: Arnold; runner-up: Chambers