Raleigh Area Children's Theatre earns top prize in Atlanta competition among 124 groups

The Raleigh Area Children’s Theatre or ACT has participants ages 9 to 18 who displayed their talents at the Junior Theater Festival.

After the competition ended, participants waited for the official announcement on the winners. The Raleigh ACT finally heard the results from a phone app and screamed jubilantly when they were announced as the event’s first-place winners.

It’s a moment 12-year-old Elyse Poynter will never forget.

“I was just really surprised and laughing and everyone was just excited,” she said.

Amanda Blaire Thompson created Raleigh ACT and attracts many families with children who dream about performing on stage.

“They are theater-loving kids, else, I wouldn’t want them to go because if you don’t love rehearsal, you’re not going to love this process,” Thompson said.

Preparing for a performance took about 40 hours of rehearsals.

The group wore specially designed T-shirts with the “Beauty and the Beast” logo, which served as their costume as they readied for their 15-minute presentation before judges.

“Rehearsal after rehearsal, like you’re crunching everything in and like Ms. Blaire said,’You get every second of it because you want it to be perfected,’” said 14-year-old Aaron .

The role of the play’s “Beast” involved six actors moving as one with the lightest actor atop their shoulders.

Kara Troy, 16, kept a positive attitude.

“This is what I love to do," Troy said. "It’s what I really want to do, so I try to focus a lot of energy, all on this.”

The result for the young performers was the top prize, the group’s second in as many years.

“We were absolutely over-joyed to be awarded Outstanding Performance," Thompson said. "We would have walked away being extremely proud of ourselves, even without that because we all came together and told a beautiful story.”