Awards & honors

Poetry recognition

Scholastic Silver Key for Poetry

Thank You, Places

“Thank you, places.” The words drift across the backstage shadows, soft yet resonant, a quiet signal that travels from performer to performer like a shared heartbeat. Back here, the air feels different, charged, alert, alive with whispered hopes and barely controlled energy. People straighten their posture, exchanging small nods, breathing a little deeper, letting courage settle where nerves once lived. We gather in the wings, half-hidden in dim light, our chests pounding in a familiar rhythm, We've felt this way countless times before. Hands tremble: not from fear alone, but from the weight of anticipation, from the longing to share what we have shaped, practiced, and poured our souls into it. Costumes shimmer softly, they carry the work of countless hands, each thread a quiet reminder that we are all together in this. The stage itself waits, vast and silent for now, like a sleeping world on the edge of awakening. Above us, the lights hum faintly, radiating warmth, ready to burst into brilliance at the first cue. They will soon reveal every expression, every gesture, every breath we take as we step out to tell the story we have built piece by piece. “Thank you, places,” the final reminder that the world beyond the curtain has taken its seat, that the moment has arrived to trust our training, to trust each other, to trust the sparks inside us. As the lights shine slow and sure, the stage is aglow. Ten seconds to go, time freezes, just long enough to feel the enormity of the moment. And then, together, with steady steps and soaring spirits, we move forward past the curtain’s edge. IT'S SHOWTIME.