There may have been some friendly competition involved, but Berkeley County School District’s Theatre Showcase Clinic means so much more than that.
The clinic is all about helping BCSD’s young thespians get into character, build confidence and work together to improve their acting skills – all with the help of teachers and students they have not previously met.
When the district started the theatre showcase clinic two years ago, half of the event consisted of dance and the other half was theatre. Last year, the district brought a clinician in to work with each of the participating schools to address different areas of theatre that needed improvement.
With this being the third year of the clinic, BCSD decided to add a competition component to the two-day event. Ten district theatre programs traveled to Stratford High on Nov. 12 to be a part of the 2025 event – participating schools were Howe Hall AIMS, H.E. Bonner Elementary, Marrington Middle School of the Arts, Philip Simmons Middle, Berkeley High, Cane Bay High, Goose Creek High, Hanahan High, Philip Simmons High and Stratford High. Each student at the event was handpicked by their theatre teacher to participate.
BCSD Fine Arts Coordinator Cassandra Cowdrey said the competition format was meant to help students prepare for upcoming state theatre competitions.
“Kind of like what we do with band and how they have a county and then a region event, we’re trying to move into that aspect for theatre,” Cowdrey said. “So, they have their ‘county’ event and then ‘region’ event.”
Students joined master classes taught by district teachers as well as outside artists from the South Carolina Governors School and a public theatre program. Classes focused on different aspects of theatre such as lighting, the audition process, improvisation, physical acting and emotional acting, getting into character and more.
Students spent half of the day on Friday participating in these classes, with the afternoon being spent working on scenes from the different performances they have been practicing this semester. Performances ranged from monologues to group scenes to duets, depending on what they have been working on at school. Teachers from different schools observed performances and gave feedback to help students progress in their work.
On Saturday, the schools started the day receiving adjudicated ratings by four judges from the South Carolina Governors School (see scores below), and then spent the rest of the day putting on their performances.
As the students participated in the Friday master classes, Cowdrey said she noticed the students working really hard on their craft.
“They loved hearing from different teachers who aren’t just their own theatre teacher, and participating in different events that they’ve never been able to do,” Cowdrey said.
Cowdrey worked closely with Stratford High theatre teacher Anita Sticht, who is the theatre lead for the district, to make this year’s event come to fruition.
While it is beneficial for the students to work with other teachers and theatre professionals, Sticht said there is an added benefit of the children working with students from other schools.
“When they get together and see what the other students are doing, it makes them want to perform that much better,” she said. “It makes them want to grow. It’s not ‘competition’ so much as aspirational goals for performance levels. And it’s always nice to make new friends in their groups.”
Students can attest they learned a lot from the two-day event. Howe Hall AIMS fifth grader Annie Nelson said one of the things the students learned about was called devised theatre, where actors create a short play on the spot.
Nelson is an aspiring stage performer and looks up to Hanahan High alumna Dabria Aguilar, who made a move to the Big Apple in 2023 and has since performed in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular as part of the production’s dance ensemble, and also made her Broadway debut in “Moulin Rouge!”
Nelson loves her school’s theatre program and has enjoyed participating in the district theatre showcase; this was her second time participating.
“It’s really fun to me and I enjoy it a lot,” she said. “You get to experience a lot of other things, and I like how we meet…other elementary schools.”
Marrington Middle School of the Arts eighth grader Luke McCorkle said the sessions he participated focused on different types of theatre acting, such as improvisation. In general, he said the teachers are trying to build the students up to be better actors.
“I like how they’re putting us with people we’ve never met – it’s really helping us with social skills,” McCorkle said.
In one class, Berkeley High 10th grader Ethan Weisbrod observed a method of acting where students wore masks to learn about conveying a story without facial emotions.
Weisbrod echoed similar thoughts about working with other teachers and theatre professionals.
“I feel like the information is more raw because…it’s not coming from someone I know, it’s coming from somebody with even more experience,” he said.
In another class, Stratford High 11th grader Mason Paul enjoyed participating in performing the comedic play “Good Cop, Bad Cop.” Paul said he enjoyed the opportunity to learn from the master classes.
“It makes us perform better and sets up for our future if we are going to pursue acting in the future,” he said. “That’s one of my paths.”
Saturday's ratings are as follows:
H.E. Bonner Elementary: one group piece – Superior
Howe Hall AIMS: two monologues, two duets and two group pieces – five Superiors
Marrington Middle School of the Arts: one group piece – Excellent
Philip Simmons Middle School: two duets and one group piece – two Excellents and a Superior
Berkeley High School: one group piece – Excellent
Cane Bay High School: two monologues, two duets and one group piece – five Superiors
Goose Creek High School: four solos – four Superiors
Hanahan High School: two duets and one monologue: two Superiors and one Excellent
Philip Simmons High School: one group piece, one duet and one monologue – two Excellents and two Superiors
Stratford High School: two duets and one monologue – three Superiors
