The echoes of stamping feet on bleachers soundtracked junior Rebecca Hill’s descent to the Calabasas High School gymnasium floor, where she stood holding hands with her teammates awaiting to hear the 2025 Drama Teachers’ Association of Southern California (DTASC) Set Design winners. Months of meticulous research, weeks of miniature set construction and hours of anticipation had culminated in this moment. 

Since 1920, DTASC, an educational theater organization of more than 100 middle and high school performing arts teachers in Southern California, has hosted biannual theater festivals where thousands of students can compete in acting and technical theater categories. The fall-semester entries revolve around varying themes, while the spring-semester entries focus on Shakespearean works. 

Hill, having participated in five consecutive festivals, leads a small group of Pali set design students each semester to compete against other schools. Their category-specific requirements consist of a 3D replication of the Pali mainstage, Mercer Hall, and half-inch scale hand-painted set pieces plotted to be functional in that space.

“Typically, we design miniature models of a working set for three or more scenes of a given play, two of which have to be sequential and show the transition between them,” Hill said. “We are also judged on a concept notebook, which contains our design process and rationale.” 

The majority of the group work is completed within Theater Ensemble, a seventh-period class that teaches a medley of topics such as audition technique, musical theater, script writing and stage design.

Monique Smith, one of the seventh-period teachers that oversees competing DTASC technical groups, noted the uniquely creative talent of her students when compared to the sets of other schools. 

“Pali is really known for being able to create treasure out of someone else’s trash,” Monique Smith said. “Other schools sometimes will purchase miniatures… but our kids are so creative and use tissue paper, foil, clay and acrylic to create the sets.”

The judges clearly favor Pali’s innovative recycling techniques. Since the beginning of Pali’s involvement in DTASC, technical students have consistently placed in the top five of more than 25 entries per category. 

Cheri Smith, director of Pali’s mainstage fall play and spring musical, commended the program’s consistent positive performance, going so far as to call the team the “Tech Gods.”

“We coined the term because [Pali’s technical theater students] were constantly impressing us with their dedication, their attention to detail and the amount of time they were taking in preparation,” Cheri Smith said. 

Despite such efforts, many members of the school theater department feel their achievements have been hindered following the fires due to a lack of school funding, damaged materials and a deficiency in popular support. 

Senior Ambrose Reynal, head of costume design for Pali’s mainstage productions and DTASC, described his frustration stemming from the loss of years worth of accumulated projects post fires. 

“For costumes it’s especially difficult because all of our resources burned in the fire and we can’t even buy back our old inventory,” Reynal said.

On the social side of this debate, theater members pointed to DTASC’s lack of representation as a traditional high school extracurricular to be a key reason for disparities in sponsorship.

Iset Powers, a leader of the DTASC costume group, was especially connected to this issue. She explained the prejudice she felt the department faced when advocating for financial support. 

“I think the lack of publicity definitely contributes to funding,” said Powers, a junior. “But I also think that theater is not as widely considered to be a quintessential part of the high school experience.”

Hill expressed similar sentiments, adding that their theatrical pursuits have failed to be widely recognized in the community.  

“Everyone wants to fund something that they know about, but it’s hard to show support for an activity that is a mystery to everyone, especially DTASC,” Hill said.

From an administrative perspective, Cheri Smith shared how fulfilling the needs of her students was the top priority when searching for funding.

“Our biggest concern is making sure that the people understand that even though we’re sort of situated in a very affluent community, we do have very dire needs for our programs and we want to make sure that the expense is never passed on to students,” Cheri Smith said. 

Students and faculty said that they seek to maintain programs such as DTASC for its emotional and educational value for students. Monique Smith mentioned the gratitude previous participants of the program, who are currently working professionally in the field, expressed toward the DTASC preparation process. 

“I’ve had many students who’ve gone on to technical theater in college who come back and say all of their assignments were exactly what they had to do for DTASC,” Monique Smith said.

DTASC has a multitude of values, including supporting higher education for the students that are involved. The DTASC Scholarship awards financial assistance on a merit basis to participants of at least two festivals for both acting and technical students. Pali students’ reputation at the competition has landed them numerous scholarships, most recently including actor Sam Jacobson (class of 2025).

Powers finds the interconnectedness of California high school theater programs through DTASC to be one of the greatest rewards when attending the competition, especially after the estrangement caused by the fires. 

“After the fires, one of my best friends left the school,” Powers said. “But she participates in DTASC at her new school and I get to see her perform at the festival and we bond over the shared experience.”

For Hill, continual theater excellence will hopefully foster a well-supported community in the future, one that includes a stage replenished with all the furnishings thrown out in the fires.

“Whenever someone is watching a show, I hope they remember there’s a whole community behind the curtain that deserves to have the resources to actually get new curtains.”