Families and friends gathered in the theater Feb. 6 to see the cast — not to see an official performance but to watch a rehearsal instead.

This year, for the first time advanced theatre students because rehearse in front of a crowd before going to perform at the Lenaea Theatre Festival where they participate in workshops and get chances to win awards.

“We are rehearsing what we are doing at Lenaea [Theatre Festival]. I’m in the deu scene and we have been practicing for a good half of the semester. This is the first time Whitney has performed at an audience. Normally we take the Friday off and practice then leave early Saturday morning [for the festival] but this year we thought it would be a good idea to practice in front of people to get used to performing in front of people and to get the nerves out,” Justine Freschi said.

At the festival, students will perform single acts, monologues, deus, singing acts. The Kirby Cast of the fall play, “You Can’t Take It With You” will be performing at the festival along with monologues performed by Jonah Petty and Harmony Reilly, deus performed by Breana Gittens and Kyla Duffey and a singing act performed by Angie Reed.

Advanced theatre student Angie Reed engages in various types of theatre like singing, dancing and acting and has attended the Leanea Theatre Festival three years.

“I keep going back for the learning experience. They have workshops there and they take you through auditions of different types of entertainment like voice acting, live stage, and film. They help you become a better performer, and it really is fun,” Reed said.

The festival, which takes place Feb. 6-8 gives students a chance to expand their horizons of theatre. Attending the festival enables an opportunity to broaden their outlook on theatre by letting them meet other theatre students in the Sacramento region and a place to enrich and exchange their ideas in theatre.

Tyler Olsen said, “I’m really excited to run though the lines and really see the play come to action after tonight and to hang out and see everyone perform all day.”

by LILY JONES