Seventh-grader Haley A. not only was awarded a Best of Show for her costume design but she garnered a Critics’ Choice award for the entire tech category Saturday at the middle-school thespian district competition.

“I was a bit confused and excited because I didn’t know how many presentations there were until my sister told me afterwards,” Haley said. “I thought that there were probably people who were better than me and were probably more deserving of the award.” 

The seventh-grader underestimated the impact she had on the judges.

“[The judges] were very friendly and one of the main criticisms was that they couldn’t really see everything because I had feathers on my design and that I should put some watercolor behind the picture to give it a little bit of ‘pop’,” she said.

But it was her angle on the design that really seemed to set her apart from her opponents.

“My main focus was Cat in the Hat, Thing 1, Thing 2, and Horton,” she said. “I decided to go for the 1920s era because it was very exciting colorful and fun, and I thought that ‘Seussical’ is kind of like that. I think that maybe using this era that was more mature than “Seussical” really is was a big difference from what everyone else did.”

Sophomore, Madi Newcombe, a leader for Troupe 88940, witnessed Haley’s reaction.

“When she found out, the first thing she did was put on the medal and then hug her mom,” Newcombe said. “She was so surprised and extremely happy and she got a huge smile on her face. I thought she did a great job especially for her first time with the event and she knew what she was talking about as well as having well-drawn designs”

While Haley did win the whole tech category, she also recognized others’ effort.

“I worked super-hard on it,” Haley said. “I feel like they [other costume designer participants] put the same amount of effort maybe a bit more, but I feel like mine took up more space than theirs did.”

By Jade Norton

Editor’s note: Brevard Public Schools policy prohibits the inclusion of middle-schoolers’ last names on district-sponsored websites.