All five Haines Glacier Bards made it to the final round and earned top finishes for the second year in a row for the debate, drama and forensics state championship.
Junior Stella Ordonez and seniors Eli Williamson and Yzella Miramontes took third place in Readers Theatre. Senior Hannah Boron and Williamson placed second for an acting duet. Boron also took second with a humorous interpretation that earned a command performance which she performed for all tournament participants. Junior Sally Chapell earned fourth place for extemporaneous commentary, an event where the competitor has only a few minutes to write and perform a speech on a random category.
“For a team of five they did fantastically well,” head coach Hannah Bochart said. “Despite it all being a live stream event it went off, I wouldn’t say without a hitch, but it went really well.”
The Bards typically perform their pieces during a three-day event in either Juneau or Anchorage. This year, they had to perform in various unoccupied classrooms as the school day progressed on Friday, and again Saturday.
“We were ducking in and out of rooms while they were open,” Bochart said.
On Saturday, halfway through the final rounds, the school’s alarms went off. Ordonez, while performing a piece about a student in a drama competition having a nervous breakdown while attempting to give her speech, continued to perform among the din of alarms.
“She stayed in character for a good ten seconds before turning to her judges saying, ‘I guess I need to evacuate the building.’ It was a water-pressure related incident. We had to find a room where there were no flashing lights,” Bochart said. “Stella just took a deep breath and jumped back into her solo and finished second in the state with it.”
For four of the five team members, this was their last competition with the Glacier Bards. Three seniors are graduating and Ordonez is moving next year, Bochart said.
“It’s bittersweet,” Boron said. “We all wish we had a regular school year to end on but I couldn’t be more proud of how far I’ve come and how far my peers have come, and to have experienced such a wonderful activity.”
Boron earned her second-place finish with a humorous piece about a boy’s finishing school teacher explaining to distraught parents why she murdered their son.
Bochart said she and the team plan to recruit incoming freshmen to the team to join Chapell, the remaining Bard.