RACHEL, W.Va. (WBOY) – Theater students from North Marion High School will be representing the state of West Virginia at a national theater conference in March.

The students will be performing a shortened version of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummers Night’s Dream” at the Southeastern Theater Conference in Florida. They will be joined by 17 other theater programs from different states to showcase their plays.  

“Being in theater is such a different branch. You get to be a different person, dress up and it’s fun just being in the part and learning the lines and different languages,” said Lillyth Riggs, a student at North Marion who play “Hermia” in the performance.

The group has already competed in the West Virginia Theater Association competition at West Liberty University in November and plans to compete at the Regional Thespian Festival in Clarksburg before the national conference.  

“I’m not a part of a sport so being a part of the theater really gives me a chance to get out and be able to do things that I never thought I could,” Abigail Smith, a North Marion Highschool student and stagehand for the play said. 

“This is a really hard play. There’s four different storylines in this and the students have really risen to the occasion and they’re performing Elizabethan poetry. They wrote their own music for this play and they’re doing it in these really elaborate costumes so what they’re doing is really impressive,” Celi Oliveto, the North Marion Highschool Theater director said. 

The North Marion Highschool Foundation and the Marion County Board of Education helped the theater program purchase new costumes for the play. The group will have several more fundraisers before their trip in March. One will be at Applebee’s on Feb. 8 for a Dine and Donate event.  

The Southeastern Theater Conference will be held on March 2 at the Lexington Opera House in Florida.