Turns out it was good enough. More than good enough to make history. When the Malcolm drama cast and crew – all 116 of them – hoisted the state championship trophy for play production Dec. 9 in Norfolk, it was the first Class A championship in the school’s history.
“While it was a good performance for anyone seeing it for the first time, it was definitely not our best performance of the season,” Malcolm drama coach Tami Maytum said. “You always hope that your final performance is where everything clicks and you knock it out of the park, but there were a few spots that weren’t as solid as usual.”
The judges saw enough to declare Malcolm – with its total enrollment of 207 – the champions in Nebraska’s big school class, ending Gretna’s 12-year reign. The Dragons finished second to the Clippers. Norfolk, Lincoln East, Fremont and North Platte rounded out the field.
“Kids will do almost anything for someone who truly believes in them,” Maytum said. “If we told them we didn’t think they could hang with the big schools, they would believe us. Instead, we tell them that we would put them up against the biggest in the state because we believe that they have the talent, desire and work ethic to get the job done. They are invested. That is one thing that we heard over and over at critiques this season, how invested the team is to be able to pull off a piece of this complexity and caliber.”
In his role as Niles, one of the jungle guides in “Jumanji,” Tyler Thieman earned most outstanding male actor honors.
“The other guides and I pretty much provided as much comic relief throughout the show as we could,” Thieman said. “As soon as I read the script, I knew that I was going to love the role. I envisioned a totally over the top person, which is the kind of character I absolutely love to play.”
“What an amazing kid with talent across the board,” Maytum said about Thieman. “As an actor, musician, a leader. He just has a way with making his characters come alive. When I was writing this adaptation, I knew that I wanted both Tyler and Brian (Streeter) as the lead jungle guides. Those two play so well opposite each other, have stage smarts and are quite comical. A lot of the lines they had in the play were actually left open for them to come up with.”
The senior thespian agrees with his coach that his fellow cast mates are what make the success possible.
Streeter, Dalton Amen, Karter Kinkaid and Reegan Bixenmann also received outstanding performance awards.
“The biggest part of performing is energy,” Thieman said. “It’s impossible to have a lot of energy if you don’t have anybody to feed off. Brian, along with the rest of the guides, Karter and Dalton brought so much energy to the stage. They were incredible to share the stage with because we all fed off of each other’s energy.”
While dozens of students have on-stage roles in the Malcolm production, there are many working behind the scenes to make the show what it is. The Clippers received the award for outstanding technical crew.
“The tech crew this year is one of the biggest and best we’ve ever had,” Maytum said. “Our music pit was stacked deep in talent, our spotlights were three and four deep in talent, which saved us several times when people were out due to illness and we had to shift kids around. The brute squad, wow. They got stuff done. They were a well-oiled machine. So efficient and fun.”
This was Maytum’s ninth trip to state in her 11 years at the helm and her second state title.
“This accomplishment is for all of those Malcolm alumni that started with us back in 2012 when we had absolutely no clue what we were doing,” Maytum said. “There were quite a few alumni in the audience at Norfolk, and I received messages from many more. This title is for all of those kids who believed in us and gave their time and efforts to our program.”
As Thieman moves on to college at UNO and considers involvement in speech and drama at the collegiate level, he will leave Malcolm thankful for the instruction he received from an invested group of coaches.
“The were all crucial in ensuring everybody was bringing their A-game every day,” Thieman said. “Mrs. Maytum wrote a beautiful script. Mr. Maytum helped with the tech side of things. Nicole (Benischek) did our set design, which was absolutely stunning. Ike Maytum helped a lot this year with the acting side of things. Brett Baker was always there to ensure that everyone stayed in line. You could tell they cared, and knew that we were working with something really special.”
While the Malcolm coaches take a few minutes to enjoy the success of the season, plans for next season are already in the works.
“The key to writing your own script is to match it up with the talent that you have,” Maytum said. “Write to your strengths. Pieces with room for multiple large ensembles where you can showcase everyone. But, I have to set next season’s script aside, as speech season officially began on our bus ride home from Norfolk.”
