West Orange High School Actors Rack Up More Awards

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Dozens of students from West Orange High School recently took part in the virtual Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey (STANJ) competition, with several earning awards.

Thirty-seven theater students from the West Orange High School theater program competed for awards in categories against other students across New Jersey, including Dramatic and Comedic Monologues, Best Actor, Best Actress, Improvisation, Pairs and Senior Scholarship.

According to their website, “The Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey (STANJ) is the voice of advocacy for the inclusion of speech and theater arts in the educational curricula. The association includes members from elementary, middle, high school, college, and professional theatre who are interested in acting, directing, forensics, musical theater, and technical theatre.”

WOHS theater teacher Wendy Mapes said everyone was excited about the competition.

“I am really proud of everyone for following through and submitting their video performances,” Mapes said.

Mapes continued:

“Students worked collaboratively to rehearse and submit everything on time. Unfortunately, the STANJ competition pivoted to a virtual platform this year. In spite of our disappointment in not being able to compete in person, we were very excited to have a few theatre students who placed as finalists and brought back some awards.”

They included:

• senior Amina Anekwe won fourth place in Contrasting Monologues
• freshman Abigail Rothstein won sixth place in Contrasting Monologues
• senior Ben Pierre placed as a finalist in Dramatic Monologues
• juniors Delia Kravits and Shane Donagher placed as finalists in Musical Duets

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