Despite it being her first year on the school’s improv team, Fifth Wall, junior Lillie Mikuls has made smashing success. The team performs several shows throughout the school year, both after shool and during advisory. Mikuls even competed in the state tournament.
“I competed with Myka Beck’s team during Drama-Con, aka the Thespian Festival,” Mikuls said. “It was a lot of fun.”
The school sent two teams, one led by Junior Myka Beck, and the other by Senior Grant Kozisek. The competition consisted of two rounds, one preliminary of all sixty teams and a final round of the top nine.
“We did really good [in round one],” Mikuls said. “We made it to the final round as well as the other team from Blue Valley.”
Both teams found great success at the competition, with Beck’s team getting third and Kozisek’s getting second. Mikuls also found success, being recognized individually by being nominated for best individual improver.
“It’s been so much fun,” Mikuls said. “It’s such a great community of people. I consider everyone on the team my friend and I can tell we all care about each other.”
With her time and experience on the Fifth Wall team, Mikuls has noticed a lot of improvement both as an actor and as a person.
“I got a lot of experience working with like other actors that were on Fifth Wall so it made it easier to work them in class because I knew them better and I knew how they act,” Mikuls said, “It also made it so that I was able to strengthen relationships with people. Some people have said that I was a little shy like my first year in theater and last year, but now I feel like I get along with everyone really well.”
Being on Fifth Wall has also done a lot to boost Mikuls’ confidence, both inside and outside of the realm of theater.
“If you asked me two years ago, if I’d be willing to go on stage with the Fifth Wall team, I would have looked at you with fear in my eyes probably. But when I got when I did, we were all being stupid and weird and it was fun because we weren’t laughing at each other. We were laughing with each other.”
