MIA Presents O Christmas Trees

Marco Island Academy hosted a sold-out audience on Friday, November 21, for a one-act play, O Christmas Trees, then got up the next morning and took their show on the road. The Marco performance was essentially a dress rehearsal for the school’s entry in the district Thespys competition at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida. The dry run was evidently successful as the MIA troupe scored four awards on Saturday.

“We did not advance to States,” said Christopher Dayette, performing arts instructor at MIA. “There were four plays that received Superior. The top two advance to the state competition. Third place gets recognized as the alternate in the event that one can’t go. We came in fourth.”

MIA walked away with four awards: Superior Play, Superior Tech, All Star Cast – Sammy Zocco, and All Star Crew – Luke Tirrell. Dayette couldn’t be prouder of his students.

“The troupe hit a grand slam in my book,” Dayette said. “It was the best setup and strike time we have ever had. They came in at 27 minutes. And the cast was the strongest they have ever been. It was the best I’ve seen them perform. I’m so proud of them.”

MIA was competing in the District 13 Thespys one act play competition.

“We did this a few years ago,” Dayette said, “and it was a success. We haven’t done it in a few years, so this year I decided I wanted to do that.”

Dayette, who wrote the script over the summer as part of a playwriting challenge, is proud that his students are doing most of the heavy lifting.

“It's a student-run production,” Dayette said. "The students basically have 40 minutes to go from the side of the stage, set up and get everything in place, run the show, perform the show, and then put everything back into their box. And if we go over time, we can be disqualified.”

For example, if students forget to sweep up a spill, they get docked points.

"Those are things that we can either lose points for or get disqualified for.”

Dayette’s imprint is definitely on the show.

"I did write the show,” he said, "I also am required to direct the show. But everything else has to be done by the students. I have a student – Dakota Tenney - that designed our costumes. I designed and built the set and painted it with the help of some students. But in terms of the actual running of the show, that's all students. It was a lot of pressure for them. But they have done an incredible job.”

The cast for O Christmas Trees consists of Madisyn Steiner, Lukas Beal, and Zocco and Joaquin Perez. Tirrell, Alexa Hamm, Colin Hinton, Ari Kuperman, and Sarah Bergman performed the crew duties. Tenney is credited as a creative for the play.

As can be expected, it took plenty of practice to get ready for Friday and Saturday’s performance.

"We started practicing about two times a week,” Dayette said. “Then we increased it to three times a week. Last week it was four times, and then this week was four. Today they're ready. Friday was technically our final practice because it’s the competition that really counts."