The Pleasant Valley High School Drama Department attended the Iowa State Thespian Festival in Cedar Falls, Iowa. During the three day long festival which started on Friday, November 11, a student from Pleasant Valley High School, Maaz Ahmed, was elected as one of six Thespian Officers in the state of Iowa. Ahmed reminisces, “We all sat backstage behind the grande and waited for State Thespian Officer results. Then I was elected, it was really awesome, and everyone cried”.
It all started for Ahmed in seventh grade when his friend, Keshav Wagle, asked Ahmed to do the musical with him. Ahmed was conflicted about whether he wanted to audition or not, so both he and Wagle decided to help with tech in the musical. Through his initial experience Ahmed says he “ got to see how cool all the different aspects of drama were. I saw the different levels of how involved people were with drama and how awesome it was to make all that [a show] happen”.
Now how did Ahmed go from being a seventh grade techie to an Iowa State Thespian Officer?
Ahmed says he started prepping “behind the scenes” in 10th grade for this election process. Ahmed admits that he had to force himself to be less introverted. To accomplish this, he started just talking to more people and therefore building more connections around the state.
He says, “My mindset was that I wanted to do everything I could to make sure that I got this position. I wanted to put in my all and see what would happen”.
The concrete preparation for becoming a State Thespian Officer consisted of attending a leadership conference over the summer, running a campaign, compiling a presentation, and performing a speech. At the leadership conference, Ahmed says, “I met really awesome people and grew a lot as a leader”. The presentation consisted of writing and performing a four minute speech, followed by a Q&A session with the State Board Director. Ahmed reveals, “I hadn’t met her before. It was really interesting performing for someone I knew of but didn’t know”, as his past performances were usually for people who were familiar to him. This rigorous process led Ahmed to be elected Iowa State Thespian Officer.
Ahmed’s election was not his only accomplishment for the weekend. His improv group, with Wagle, Ali Rizvi and Sam Lindhoff, placed third in the state for group improv. In addition, Ahmed performed in the high school’s production of “Sweeney Todd” at the state festival. The show was then chosen to attend the International Thespian Festival in the summer of 2017. The Pleasant Valley Drama Department had been working on the show ever since school started. Ahmed was in the cast but explains that he “spent an ungodly amount of hours in the theater working on things, rehearsing, putting up lights, building sets, and helping work the show to make sure stuff happened”. Ahmed’s character is summarized by one of the musical directors of “Sweeney Todd”, Robert Williams. He describes Ahmed, “Maaz is a really hard worker. His voice fit the role well because of its natural youthfulness. He had a stellar performance, and he always delivers to his audience”.
