Tovar, Diaz qualify for UIL State Theatrical Design competition

The Gonzales High School Theatre Arts Department is proud to announce that two of its students have qualified for state in UIL Theatrical Design.

Aubree Tovar, a sophomore, and Frankie Diaz, a junior, both qualified with their marketing designs of the musical, “Hadestown.”

The prompt UIL gave them was "We will produce the musical, Hadestown, Book, Music & Lyrics by Anaïs Mitchell. After a careful study of the musical, Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell, designers must select a theme and create a thematic statement that will drive all design decisions and be evident throughout all their design choices and supported with textual or music lyric references." 

Aubree and Frankie set to work and submitted their designs on Feb. 17. After waiting for a month, word came from UIL state office that they had made it! 

"I'm very glad I've been given the opportunity to showcase my project at State. I am excited to express my idea of a songbird," Tovar said.

Diaz had a similar reaction — "Super excited to have this opportunity to be able to show my ideas and designs.  I'm excited to express my visual ideas of trust and love's transformative power."

Theatre Arts teachers Leslie Buesing and Madison Pope are very proud of these students. In all, five students submitted work, which also included Ainsley Pope, Estrella Zavala (last year's state qualifier in set design), and River VanKirk.

"We had five students submit work in different categories,” Buesing said. “It is a tough contest with a lot of work required of them, but these students stayed steady and submitted their work. The theatrical design contest grew this year to 1,150 participants in the entire state. This is a significant accomplishment for these students." 

The students will head to the state contest at the Austin Performing Arts Center on May 10-11.