For the past two years, Lyman Gilmore Middle School has offered their students a Musical Theater Program and it is already proving successful.  This past weekend 17 musical theater students attended the 15th Annual Middle Stage Drama Fest in Sacramento. Students performed monologues, scenes and musical numbers, competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals.  This year over 200 students from 12 middle schools competed in the festival.  Gilmore students Bryce Nguyen, Aurora Dibert Breanna Sanders, Syreena Cain, and Aubrey Pohl all received gold metals for their musical numbers, group scenes and monologues.  Quinlin Schug, Faith Stubbs, Abby Garcia, Lilly Stone and Shelby Figueroa received silver medals.  In the end, Gilmore walked away with eight gold medals, six silver and seven bronze.

“We attended this event for the first time last year, but it was amazing to watch these students take it to the next level this year.  They all really wanted to succeed and represent our school with pride,” says Gilmore Musical Theater teacher Becky Browning.  “Everyone of the students who attended worked really hard this year.  From memorizing their scenes, getting over their fears of singing in front of a group of people, or being evaluated by a panel of judges.  Theater has the ability to teach essential skills like communication and corporation.  This year, these students exceeded these basic skills and were seasoned performers!”

You can see these students along with others perform this weekend at the Don Baggett Theater in their upcoming production of “The Little Mermaid.”  Performances are Friday and Saturday evening at 7pm and Sunday at 2pm.