A day for the straight plays: P.C. drama students bring home 5 prizes in inaugural ESAG awards
May 9, 2024 at 12:19 a.m.
Frankly, Christina Baurle is partial to straight plays. But in the world of theater, musicals get all the hype.
“Growing up, my parents would take me to one musical a year. But it wasn’t until I was in late-high school, or maybe even college, that I realized how many plays there are,” the Port Chester High School theater teacher said. “When I started to go see those, I realized there’s just more you can do with plays a lot of the time, especially in a high school setting.”
High school thespians in the region get animated every spring as they gear up for the well-established Metro Awards—a glamorous ceremony that sees students dressing to the nines for a night of performances and acknowledgments of the year’s best spring musical productions. But the non-musicals, typically showcased in the fall semesters, had never received the same type of distinction.
The inaugural Eastern Student Artist Guild (ESAG) awards ceremony on Saturday, May 4, took a step toward changing that status quo. And Port Chester High School students who premiered “12 Angry Jurors” in November 2023 brought home five awards highlighting their dramatic zest.
“As soon as I read about (ESAG), I got really excited,” Baurle said. “In all districts, there are students who shine specifically in acting roles. And I feel like most theater awards are focused on great singing and dancing, which our students possess, but I feel like sometimes actual acting gets overlooked. Musicals can have some really great acting, but because there’s so much other stuff going on, you don’t have as much of a focus on the acting.”
At the inaugural ESAG awards at Manhattanville University last weekend, a dozen schools were represented, and multiple students were honored in each category. A keynote speaker, Tony Award-winning actor Jesse Aaronson, reportedly reflected on his love of growing up in the theater community before honors were bestowed and winning artists performed monologues.
Toni Ash, a Port Chester High School junior, was the only one to win best student director, while seniors Nicholas Bedoya and Sebastian Gimenez were among four to receive best actor honorable mentions for their roles as Juror 3 and Juror 8, respectively. “12 Angry Jurors,” overall, was one of the four to win best ensembles in a drama and one of six to be named as a best drama production.
The Port Chester High School Drama Club’s production of “12 Angry Jurors” in November 2023 earned the program five ESAG awards in the new guild’s inaugural ceremony on Saturday, May 4.By File Photo
“Musicals tend to have a better turnout and there’s a bigger emphasis on them in the school; we usually spend more time on them,” Bedoya said. “So, it’s nice to have some recognition for the work we put in for the play, I think it’s great. Especially for those who act in the dramas but don’t participate in the musicals, it’s nice for them to also have a chance.”
“It’s nice to have a program that’s about building a community. Sometimes these award ceremonies feel more like a competition, but ESAG didn’t feel like that,” Baurle said. “It felt more like a celebration…it’s nice to not feel like it’s a popularity contest or a ‘why even bother’ type of situation. I feel like everyone got a chance to feel good about their production, as they should.”
A two-pronged benefit for students, teachers
Currently pursuing a doctorate in education, Rye Neck theater teacher Cyndi Feinman partnered with Manhattanville University to create ESAG and “equalize the playing field.”
“I was doing a lot of research on different theater programs across the country, and realized here, almost all of our award ceremonies are for musicals or Shakespeare,” she said, noting she recognized a gap that she wanted to fill. Beyond that, ESAG is largely about building community. “It’s time to create a bigger network for teachers and students.”
Being a theater teacher can be lonely. As Baurle said, “we’re often a department of one,” which certainly reflects her situation, and that means her work is done in relative isolation.
Believing in the cause, Baurle got on board with ESAG—she said she did a lot of work behind the scenes to get the first ceremony up and running and plans to serve as a board member when it becomes a non-profit, as it’s currently pursuing.
“I’d like to support professional development for teachers to create a network and support systems because there aren’t a lot of opportunities to collaborate with other teachers,” Feinman said.
“My hope is that we don’t only continue to have this event expand, but for ESAG in general to expand to giving more opportunities for teachers to actually talk and work with each other,” Baurle agreed.
And that networking and skill development is also for the students.
Feinman said part of the ESAG plan is to provide master classes for high school thespians in the region, taught by professionals in the field. And Baurle noted that’s crucial “because some schools don’t have the ability to have full theater classes, they just have extracurriculars.”
“To actually have classes to go to where students can interact with students from other schools, it would be such a great opportunity,” she continued.
Ash described her desire for networking as her biggest takeaway from going to the award ceremony and learning about the guild.
“Since we’re still building our program here, it would be cool to go to other schools to see their shows and have them come see ours,” she said, with optimism about the idea being something ESAG could promote. “It would be encouraging for everyone, and we could all learn from each other.”
Growing the theater program
Gimenez was pleasantly surprised about being honored with an award. He didn’t see it coming, so it was an exciting accomplishment he accepted with pride.
Acting in straight plays presents a challenge that he said feels underappreciated.
“For the musical, you can get away with being a little less focused on your acting, but everyone is watching during the play,” he said—a point that particularly stood true during their production of “12 Angry Jurors,” which brought the audience on stage for an up-close view.
“Acting is a little easier for musicals because the music and dancing give you something to guide the personality (development) and emotion you’re trying to convey,” added Bedoya. “Meanwhile, the dramatic plays, it has to look more natural. You kind of have to put more effort into conveying that.”
All of the students expressed a similar sentiment—musicals overshadow the fall play, which is reflected in the far lower attendance they see.
As a group that’s in the middle of trying to build up a successful theater program, they hope recognition through the ESAG awards will inspire the rest of the Port Chester High School community to invest their interest in the theater program as a whole.
“With the awards, people will see that the things we’re doing are pretty good,” Bedoya said, and continued to laugh: “That ‘our peers can’t just sing, kind of, but they can also kind of act.’ Hopefully that will get more people to pay money to watch us.”
And more eyes on the plays would also encourage heightened participation from the student body in the program—a natural evolution of Port Chester High School theatrics.
Baurle added that networking with other theater students, she hopes, will also inspire her pupils to expand their own horizons. Last year, she incorporated student voice in their program by having students serve on the selection committee that chooses which plays the drama club will be presenting. Learning about other ambitions “might inspire them to put that on the list of possible shows we’ll do in the future, too.”
“One thing that was interesting was how many monologue performances done at the ceremony were Shakespearean,” she reflected. “That’s not something we’ve done before, I think even before I came here. So, it gives me the ability to say, maybe we should consider it.”
Feinman said for a first-time awards ceremony, the night went about as well as it could have. She’s already reflecting on ways to make it more fluid and impactful for the 2024-25 season.
ESAG “is really getting a lot of steam,” she said. And her theater program, at least, is already looking forward to having even more competition next year.
“Now they feel like they need to work a little harder with their plays,” she said. “But for everyone in the region, I hope this can give a little bit of leverage for our smaller shows. It’s all about momentum.”
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