Students in Palo Alto High School Thespian Troupe 909 can celebrate after winning several awards for directing, writing, acting and crewing at the California State Thespian Festival, according to theater teacher Kathleen Woods.

Out of the 40 thespians in the troupe, 14 attended the festival, which took place March 23 to 25 at Upland High School. At the festival, students could partake in Individual Events, One Act competitions, workshops and All Festival events.

“For the most part, we participated in I.E.’s,” said senior Grace Barry, president of the Thespian Board. “Students performed monologues, duet scenes, musical numbers and more for a panel of judges who gave us ratings and commentary.”

According to Woods, because Paly had previously won the Northern California Thespian One Act Competition in January, they were permitted to perform one act “English Made Simple,” by David Ives and directed by senior Zarek Siegel, on Main Stage on Friday, March 23. The play starred senior Zachary Freier-Harrison and Barry as well as sophomore Carly King.

In addition, “Yes,” an original play by Barry, took home first place for Playworks – a competition for original student work. Freier-Harrison also won the only male role in Barry’s play out of a 140 auditions at the festival.

Individuals were also honored with superior ratings, putting them in the top 10 percent of California thespians and qualifying them for the International Thespian Festival.

Sophomore Briana Billups and Rebecca Kreiger, junior Hannah Gorelik and senior Zachary Freier-Harrison all were rated “superior” in their respective events, ranging from sound design to monologue.

The stage tech students, sophomores Caroline Johnson, Henry Wilen and Billups and junior Heather Gaya, were part of the All State and All Festival Event Stage Crew after applying and being interviewed for a spot on the crew.

For Barry, however, the festival wasn’t all about the winning.

“I’m so proud of everyone, even if they didn’t win anything,” Barry said. “Obviously, I was super excited that we were such a small troupe and still managed to rack up some pretty impressive awards, but I think we all performed so well that we can really be proud of ourselves just for the effort.”

Barry added that her best moment at the festival was during the awards ceremony.

“After thanking the actors and assistant director for their help with my play, the director, [Merriman School Thespian Director] Jeff Maynard, called me up onstage in front of everyone to present me with a hug since there wasn’t an actual plaque or anything,” Barry said. “It was the most blissfully awkward moment I’ve experienced in a while.”