It was a long bus ride to The Renaissance Faire in Lancaster, PA. The drama kids from Pine Grove Area

High School were going to compete in a competition for which schools compete for the best Shakespeare scene performance. And I was one of them. I played Popillius in “Julius Caesar” Act 3 Scene 1. There were six schools competing for the chance of winning. There were three judges there with evil glares in the front row watching us. 

Suddenly, we heard, “Next up, Pine Grove Area,” from the main announcer. Everything got a lot more serious. We all went up behind stage to wait until the crowd went silent. Then it started. I heard the first line come out of our main role, Brandon Yesenosky’s mouth, “The Ides of March are come!” Everybody said their part correctly, including me. Our teacher, Mr. Blydenburgh, was really proud of us when we were finished. The audience was cheering and we were all having so much fun and we were most importantly, proud of each other.

We explored The Renaissance Faire more until we had to go to the entrance of the Faire to wait for the decision regarding the Shakespeare competition. We eagerly ran up to the booth and saw that we came in first place! Out of excitement,we all gave high-fives to each other. McKenna Levan who played Casca in our scene said, “It was an amazing sensation to know that I was able to be part of a talented group of people who worked so hard to accomplish one goal. It felt like we had accomplished so much more than merely winning a ribbon.”

On the way home from The Renaissance Faire, we were really confident and ready to go further and reach the stars with our Drama Team. For me, I still don’t know if I want to do this as a profession yet but in the meantime I want to keep on helping out and be the best actor I can possibly be.