One Act earns Superior at State
The 2025 SDHSAA State One Act Play Festival took place at the SDSU Performing Arts Center in Brookings this past weekend. Each year, judges give out superior ratings to the top individuals, ensembles, and overall plays. Schools aren’t competing against each other at this event, they perform with hopes of scoring a superior rating.
Tea Area High School’s One Act Play, “The Staggering Heartbreak of Jasmine Merriwether”, received an Overall Superior rating in Class AA. Advisors were Brooke Palleschi and Cameron Axtmann.
The accolades didn’t stop there — the Tea Area team also earned Superior Class AA Ensemble for the Interpretive Dancers.
Dancers included Jaxon Johanneson, Aubrianna Parker, Anna Klinkert, and Elnara Abbasova. Tea Area also earned Superior Tech (Skylynn Broesder, Kimberlee Brockberg, Will Roberts, James Hitzemann). Superior individual acting awards went to Avianna Steen, Riley Clark, Myrana Schnasa, Isaac Bullis, and Ella Cambier.
“Mrs. Axtmann and I are extremely proud of our cast and crew members for the successful performance and season of ‘The Staggering Heartbreak of Jasmine Merriwether’. Performing a comedy is not an easy task that we really pushed our cast members outside their comfort zones,” said Palleschi. “This year’s show also provided us a challenge of competing against extremely successful Class AA programs for the first time, and in front of new judges that are designated for that class. Mrs. Axtmann and I had full faith in our students and their leadership to perform this script at a top-tier level. They went above and beyond our expectations and knocked it out of the park. We are so incredibly proud of their work and dedication to the Tea Area One Act team.”
