{"id":21578,"date":"2025-07-03T12:10:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T18:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-graduate-and-junior-compete-at-international-thespian-festival\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:07:57","slug":"montezuma-cortez-graduate-and-junior-compete-at-international-thespian-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-graduate-and-junior-compete-at-international-thespian-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez graduate and junior compete at International Thespian Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Left
Left to right: Nicholaus Sandner (former Montezuma-Cortez High School drama director), Brian Sandner and Cruz Hernandez at the International Thespian Festival in Indiana. Both Brian Sandner and Hernandez received \u201cexcellent\u201d ratings in their respective competitions. (Cruz Hernandez\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez High School 2025 graduate Cruz Hernandez and junior Brian Sandner represented their school at the International Thespian Festival, held June 23-27 at Indiana University.<\/p>\n

The event, an extension of the Colorado State Thespian Conference, drew over 1,000 participants, including a few international attendees, for competitions, workshops and performances.<\/p>\n

Hernandez competed with his set design from \u201cBeauty and the Beast,\u201d presenting to three judges on Monday after transporting the model to Bloomington, Indiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to ship my model from here in Cortez to some family that I have in Indiana, and then unbox it and take it and actually compete,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cI competed on Monday, which consisted of three judges, and I just presented my design.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cruz
Cruz Hernandez\u2019s \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d set design. (Cruz Hernandez\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Brian
Brian Sandner\u2019s short film \u201cCommon Ground,\u201d also received an \u201cexcellent\u201d rating. (Screen capture via Ghost Light Productions YouTube)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sandner submitted his short film to be judged. Overall, 13 finalists were selected for film. Both Hernandez and Sandner earned \u201cexcellent\u201d overall ratings, and Sandner narrowly missing \u201csuperior\u201d by 0.3 points.<\/p>\n

The five-day event featured workshops that presented on a variety of topics, with Hernandez and Sandner attending some together and separately, specifically noting workshops on projection, directing and design.<\/p>\n

The two also spoke of the nearly Broadway-level shows, with Hadestown High School Edition being a standout for both Hernandez and Sandner. In total, Sandner said he attended seven of the eight shows, while Hernandez attended five.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, who graduated this spring, will attend the University of Colorado Boulder this fall for a bachelor\u2019s in technical theater, focusing on scenic design.<\/p>\n

Sandner plans to pursue film after he graduates from MCHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still planning to go into film,\u201d Sandner said. \u201cAnd through my high school, I\u2019m trying to work on films and kind of build up a resume and learn from and try to get to know people. Then after high school, I\u2019m planning to go to go into film and planning to go to a film internship to learn more about all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both qualified to attend through their state-level performances. At state, Sandner won the best editor award and received a \u201csuperior\u201d rating for his short film, and Hernandez scored a \u201csuperior\u201d rating for his \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d set design. Students are required to score \u201csuperior\u201d in state competitions to compete at the festival.<\/p>\n

\"The
The International Thespian Festival was held at the end of June at Indiana University. (Cruz Hernandez\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Meanwhile, former MCHS drama director Nicholaus Sandner, who was also present during the interview, shared a teaser about a new nonprofit he is leading called Lamp Post Creative Learning Center.<\/p>\n

Lamp Post will be hosting a children\u2019s summer theater camp starting next week. The camp will culminate with the performance of \u201cFinding Nemo Junior\u201d on July 18-19. Lamp Post is also hoping to host an adult theater production this fall.<\/p>\n

Those interested in learning more about the camp can contact Nicholaus Sandner at njsandner@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hernandez and Brian Sandner both received excellent ratings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[363,21,28,60,36,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77369,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21578\/revisions\/77369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21578"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}