ARNOLD – The 2022 NSAA Class D2 state play production championship is coming back to Custer County, again.
Arnold High School’s production of “Rosie the Riveter,” a story about the World War Two icon for women entering the workforce, earned the school its third state championship in as many years. Play Production Director Lana Cool said that winning the state title with that particular play carried with it an especially symbolic weight.
“The story starts with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and that is December 7.”
December 7 also marked the day that Arnold earned its third consecutive Play Production state crown. “We added at the beginning of the play, ‘On this very day, 81 years ago…’ It was just such a poignant opportunity to tell that story.”
The road to this year’s state title was by no means a walk through the proverbial park, Cool says; while Arnold’s production won its district competition on its way to state, conference competition was a different monster altogether.
“Conference was rough because two-thirds of our team was very, very ill. The morning of Conference, we were just praying that we’d have enough kids to put on a show, we had so much illness.”
Cool’s cast and crew still wound up landing second place, behind what Cool dubbed a “stellar” production from D1’s Stapleton.
Cool pointed to the conference illnesses as only one example of adversity faced on her crew’s 4-month journey to a third title. Each challenge, she said, was crushed beneath the unified spirit of her remarkable team.
“To win a state championship, every person has to be at a level of absolute excellence. Every student just worked so hard and was totally committed to the show, and to the process. Our kids have set a standard of excellence, top to bottom and side to side.”
That standard of excellence is the current benchmark for play productions statewide: an astounding 7 actors and actresses in Cool’s cast took home individual awards of excellence, including Ella Cool’s Class D2 Most Outstanding Female Performer Award. Usually, Cool says, productions are considered best-in-state hands down if they manage to take home 3 or 4.
Ella’s award marks its second consecutive year with the Cool family; Lana says that Ella’s thrill comes from winning it on her own merit.
“Ella said that it was fun to win the same award as her sister but to do it in a totally different way. The two characters the girls won with could not have been more different.”
Arnold’s other award winners were Silas Cool, Gracie Neth, Logan Recoy, Rio Remund, Eli Rogers, and Ivy Tullis.
Cool and her directorial team of Leta Connell and Holly Remund usually start reviewing scripts for fall productions throughout the summer, though with the dynasty they’re building, it’s hard to say if or when they might take a minute to catch their breath in the meantime.
