{"id":24179,"date":"2025-01-02T17:10:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T00:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-montezuma-cortez-drama-students-qualify-for-international-competition\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:50:09","slug":"two-montezuma-cortez-drama-students-qualify-for-international-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-montezuma-cortez-drama-students-qualify-for-international-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Montezuma-Cortez drama students qualify for international competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian
Brian Sandner\u2019s short film \u201cCommon Ground\u201d won the best editor award and received a superior rating at ThesCon. (Screen Capture via Ghost Light Productions YouTube)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Two Montezuma-Cortez High School students qualified for the International Thespian Festival after a weekend at ThesCon in December.<\/p>\n

The students, Cruz Hernandez and Brian Sandner, qualified in two different competitions. Sandner won the best editor award and received a superior rating for his short film, and Hernandez qualified with his scenic design model and set designs for \u201cBeauty and the Beast.\u201d He also scored a superior rating overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges were quite impressed by his (Hernandez\u2019s) model-building skills,\u201d drama director Nicholaus Sandner told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>. \u201cBoth students will take their projects to Indiana (University) for the national competition\u00a0in June.\u00a0Over the years that I have taught in Cortez, I have only had one or two other students qualify for nationals, but we have never attended.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cruz
Cruz Hernandez received a superior rating overall for his \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d set design. (Cruz Hernandez\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d set design. (Cruz Hernandez\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The International Thespian Festival will take place in June at Indiana University Bloomington and will last for five days. Three students from the Cortez Middle School have attended in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are main stage productions every evening, showcasing the best high schools across the country, workshops during the days and competitions throughout.\u00a0It\u2019s really a scaled up version of Colorado ThesCon at an international level,\u201d Nicholaus Sandner said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to have my students recognized at the state level and to have the opportunity to take them to an international competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandner also spoke of Brian receiving an award on the main stage for his short film. It was the first time a MCHS student has received an award of this kind at ThesCon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such fun to have Brian receive an award on the main stage at the awards ceremony; that\u2019s never happened for Cortez in the past,\u201d Sandner said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s been a big year for us this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Sandner\u2019s short film, \u201cCommon Ground,\u201d follows an American soldier as he braves a battlefield where his fellow soldiers are falling all around him. After extending aid to an enemy soldier, the soldier saves his life despite the promise of death.<\/p>\n

The four-minute video showed Brian\u2019s skills in editing, color grading, sound design and special effects.<\/p>\n

The film can be viewed on YouTube<\/a> at www.youtu.be\/AwM5z0eOSRg.<\/p>\n

Hernandez shared that this will be his first time attending the international competition and that his time at ThesCon was filled with memorable events and activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Denver, I attended various workshops that were provided, two main stage performances, individual competitions and some fun things like the Cheesecake Factory and the mall,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cMy favorite part of ThesCon is getting to spend time with my peers and learning more about myself and theater as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandner has been taking MCHS drama students to ThesCon for the past 14 years, and the program went before he was director as well.<\/p>\n

Around 40 Montezuma-Cortez High School students attended, and about half those students participated in individual event competitions. There were around 7,000 told students across the state of Colorado in attendance.<\/p>\n

At ThesCon, students have the opportunity to watch performances, compete, attend workshops and network with other drama students in the state.<\/p>\n

The two performances done on the main stage this year were \u201cDracula\u201d and \u201cSIX.\u201d They were performed by two Colorado high schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students get to see how other high schools across the state do theater through watching main stage performances.\u00a0They get to attend workshops run by professionals in various aspects of theater, from tech to acting to dancing,\u201d Sandner said. \u201cThey also get to perform in front of judges and get feedback while competing against their peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Four Corners also will be represented at Indiana University by Troupe 5954 from Piedra Vista High School in Farmington. The troupe\u2019s 35-minute performance of \u201cThe Yellow Boat\u201d at the One Act State Finals and Thespians Festival in Rio Rancho won the state title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

students punched their ticket at Colorado\u2019s ThesCon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,21,28,60,36,29,910],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24179","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=24179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78432,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24179\/revisions\/78432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24179"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}