Nouvel Theater earns the Wildcard and Qualifies for the State Competition!!

Callie Godwin

Staff Writer ’25

The Nouvel Theater Department has been hard at work since December getting ready to perform their show for competition season this year they’re performing; Everyman In The Circus Of Life. With many seniors graduating last year and two people making their return to the program, this was the year to restart and embrace a new cast which would not be an easy task but everyone was willing to step up. “Everyman In The Circus Of Life” tells the story of Everyman who represents all of mankind and she has done many wrong things and the circus boss who represents Gods demands that she writes a reckoning of her deeds, good and bad and she has one hour to complete the reckoning or else she would die. He requests the Ringmaster who represents death to kill Everyman and to seek her out if she doesn’t present her reckoning. Along the way Everyman interacts with different characters who each represent a special moral in life and they all refuse to go with Everyman to the realm of the spirit until it’s ALMOST too late and the play ends with the audience not knowing if Everyman is going to take the book to write her reckoning or not.

The show of Everyman introduced many new faces to one acts performances but they also managed to have two people from last year make their return and they were ready to work with the new cast members. The characters in the show are Everyman (who represents all of mankind) played by Junior; Maria Willertz, The Circus Boss (who represents God) played by lone Senior; Derek Bauer, The Ringmaster (who represents Death) played by Junior; RJ Medina, The Balloon Seller (who represents Friendship), The Juggler, and The Holy One (who represents Forgiveness) played by Junior; Callie Godwin, The barker (who represents the Messenger to the circus boss), Strongman (who represents Strength), and Madam Fortunata (who represents knowledge) played by Junior; Hannah Hartwell, Prudence, Ballerina (who represents beauty), and Clown (who represents love) played by Freshman; Kenna Sigmund. The cast and crew traveled to St. Johns High School on Saturday, February 3 to perform at the Regional competition. Their day consisted of watching St John’s (the host) studio show “Queens”, putting and taking apart the set and moving it around, eating a lot of snacks provided by Mark and Monica Bauer and pizza all paid for by Jeanne Gilbert, before finally applying on their makeup and costumes, before heading down for warm ups, and then finally making it into the studio for their spike before they began performing. Nouvel was the last show of the day to perform and they managed to get their shown done in 28 minutes, after meeting with the judges, they would find out if they would immediately qualify for states or be up for a wildcard. After the immediate qualifiers were announced, Nouvel found themselves in the category to earn a wildcard and qualify for states. After leaving St. Johns High School, the cast and crew stopped for dinner at Ryan’s Roadhouse.

During dinner, the cast received the exciting news that they were chosen as a wildcard and qualified for the state competition! With states in two weeks now, the cast will be hard at work preparing and making sure they do everything they can to be as successful as possible! States this year will be held at Wayne State University on February 17th and 18th. Nouvel will be performing on Saturday, February 18th!

Break a leg panthers!