KHS students shine at state drama competition
Courtesy photo Kellogg High School sent three actresses to the Idaho High School State Drama Competition recently. Pictured (from left) are Harley Duce, Savannah Hartenfels and Daighla Williams. The duo of Williams and Duce made it all the way to the semifinals of the competition.
KELLOGG — Kellogg High School had a fine showing at last weekend’s Idaho State Drama competition at Century High School in Pocatello.
The trio of Savannah Hartenfels, Daighla (pronounced Day-La) Williams, and Harley Duce took their flair for the dramatic and turned it into some very special performances.
The sophomore tandem of Williams and Duce performed a serious ensemble performance titled “Exes” by Jessica Romoff and Mila Cuda, which focuses on the toxic and abusive relationship between a man and a woman, before changing its focus from that relationship into two girls explaining the effects of physical and verbal abuse.
“It is a very serious piece that focuses on the idea that relationships like these are not about love and how these relationships are not OK,” Williams said.
Williams and Duce made it to the semifinal round, which puts them inside the top 16 serious ensemble groups in the entire state.
Hartenfels, a senior at KHS, was making her final appearance at the competition and ramped up her dramatic performance by using plot twists and props to construct a setting that is all too familiar for some people.
Hartenfels performed a piece called “Three Little Words,” which begins with a woman sitting at a bar, discussing a relationship between her and her presumed boyfriend before taking a wild turn that was equally jarring and emotional.
“I’m an angsty teenager so I have to perform serious pieces,” Hartenfels said jokingly. “But this one definitely got intense.”
Hartenfels brief description of the piece leaves little to the imagination.
“The woman is telling a story that everyone believes is about her boyfriend and starts off with her saying things like, ‘I’ve been seeing him for awhile now,’ and how things started out casual and then they started seeing each other more often, but now see each other constantly,” Hartenfels said. “It talks about how she wasn’t supposed to see him last week, but he called and has something he would like to tell her and how she is so excited to hear him say those three little words.”
Everyone expects those words to be “I love you,” but it turns out the relationship is between this woman and her oncologist and how she wanted to hear him say “You’re perfectly healthy,” but instead gets told “You have cancer.”
“It’s a complete twist that no one sees coming,” Hartenfels said. “And then it further explains how she has little time left to live.”
To compound this gut-wrenching performance, Hartenfels set up a table to look like a bar and used an old Jack Daniel’s bottle filled with apple juice to make it appear that she was drowning her sorrows in whiskey while telling her story to the bartender.
The performances from both Williams and Duce, as well as Hartenfels made waves in the dramatic competition.
“It was a lot of fun to go and compete,” Williams said. “It was my first time going to state and I definitely want to go back.”