BROOKESMITH – More than half the student body of Brookesmith High School – 22 of the 41 students, including seven of nine seniors – are represented in either the cast or crew of “The Bridegroom of Blowing Rock.”

Brookesmith’s One-Act Play will compete for the UIL Class 1A state championship Monday, May 11 during the 6:30 p.m. evening session of competition at Austin ISD’s Performing Arts Center.

“I’ve been doing this since 2020, not very long, and we’ve had some success, but this group of actors is probably the best I’ve ever had,” said Director Alyssa Graves. “I love them very much, and I really don’t want them to go. This is a ‘pinch me’ moment. It’s everyone’s dream to go to state, and of course you want to do well when you get there, but getting there is the prize. The icing on the cake, the cherry on top, is if you come away with one of those three trophies at the end. Directors work their whole lives and don’t get to this place, so I don’t take it for granted.”

The cast includes Emma Slayton, Caleb Bradley, Aidyn Barnett, Aryn Ribble, Ava Hathcock, Railey Williams, and Blake Loyd. The ensemble features Mercedes Rodriguez, Autumn Ellis, Aryn Barnett, Levi Benson, Austin Loyd, Addy Heard, Ameriah Balleza, Brooklyn Haby, and Lily Bullock. Comprising the crew are Cayden Perez, Shelby Church, Robert Eachus, and Breanna Willoughby. Alternates are Madison Johnson and Scarlet West.

“The kids weren’t in love with the story at the beginning, but they are now,” Graves said. “We’ve added so many layers to it. We have 16 kids out there acting, a skeleton crew and a ton of actors. We’ve added layers to the story and it’s really come alive. I told the kids the other day, I don’t know where I end and you begin. I don’t know the difference now because it’s so collaborative at this point. There’s so many people’s ideas rolled into this, so many kids that have come to me wanting to try this or that. It’s got to the point of a whole other thing where they are not just executing my ideas, and that’s what been so beautiful about it. I’ve never had this sort of attachment to a play. This is my baby and I feel very strongly that we have something really special.”

Regarding having such a large percentage of students involved in one project, Aidyn Barnett, who portrays the mother in the play, said, “All the different cliques, we got them all together, some of us never talked to each other, and now we do. I went into this thinking it was my senior year and I just wanted to have fun. Then we went past district, went past bi-district, now we’re at area and regionals, and holy heck we made it to state. As time went on, everyone got more and more serious about it and started putting in the work and getting better and stronger and here we are.”

“The Bridgegroom of Blowing Rock” wasn’t the original plan for the Brookesmith One-Act Play, according to Graves.

“I had another play picked, a completely different kind of play,” Graves said. “There was word on the street there was trouble getting it approved this year. As a back-up plan I asked a director friend of mine about this play. He told me to take a look at the script and felt it really suited my kids. I got a hold of a copy and was completely riveted by the story. When I got done with it I was literally shaking and crying, it was the most incredible story.”

Graves provided a synopsis of “The Bridgegroom of Blowing Rock.”

“I’m not one for tragedies, I really like happy endings, and I would not say this has a happy ending,” Graves said. “It’s about a Civil War family in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, which I’ve visited a ton. My parents lived there after they retired, so I’m very familiar with the area. In the story, the son comes home from war, he was actually a defector. One son was killed by Union raiders in the home and the mother is very bitter and wants revenge. The blind daughter falls in love with a Union raider, he’s with the group of young men who killed her son, but he didn’t do it. The whole thing is a story of forgiveness, revenge and what revenge costs us in the end, and is it worth it. It’s a beautiful production.”

Caleb Bradley, who portrays the bridegroom, shared his own description of the play.

“I’m a civil war solider who falls in love with a blind girl and I end up causing a conflict in her family, and her family falls apart because of it,” Bradley said.

Auditions were held the week before Christmas break and following a two-day retreat at the Duren Hotel in Mullin the first week of January, rehearsals began the following Sunday. It wasn’t until the district competition, however, that Graves felt the cast and crew hit their stride.

“We had a throw it together rehearsal two days before district,” Graves said. “We locked our ensemble and made some decisions at the last minute and just put it together and hoped it would stick at district, and it was just beautiful. People who have seen district and didn’t watch anything until regionals again or our recent public performance were really shocked at how much the play has grown. It’s been a process, but at district I knew this was really special.”

Mercedes Rodriguez, a member of the crew last year, was asked to be part of the ensemble this year.

“I expected to do costumes or props again like I’ve done in the past, but we ended up doing this play and Mrs. Graves came to me and wanted me to do ensemble,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t know what we were really going to do at first, but the idea came to make us up as spirits and I really enjoyed it. Before district I was really upset that we changed everything and I was like, ‘you’ve got to be kidding me.’ I thought it was going to be difficult, but it really wasn’t. It was fun changing it to the way we have it now.”

The play finished second at district, won the bi-district title, placed second at area, then won the regional championship.

Emma Slayton, who portrays Laurel – the blind girl – in the play, said, “We got really serious about this when we beat Abbott. They go to state every year, so when did that we felt we could do anything, and we’ve created our own family.”

Autumn Ellis, another member of the ensemble, said, “This is really exciting and we couldn’t have done this without Mrs. Graves. We don’t have an auditorium, we practice in an old gym with no AC, but it shows to never give up and always work together.”

Graves, Rodriguez and stage manager Cayden Perez were able to assist at the state competition a year ago, which they hope proves beneficial next week.

“Mercedes, Cayden and I went and worked the state meet last year, so they got to experience that,” Graves said. “And that experience, for me, too, really helped. We got to see rehearsals and I learned I needed to step up my official rehearsals. We got to see that side of things and it helped a lot in preparing for this year, too.”

Perez added, “Getting to state’s a good accomplishment, especially our senior year. I’m excited to be back on that stage.”

Rodriguez said, “This is something I’ll tell my kids and grandchildren about. I made it to state with a special group of people that were my best friends.”

Graves shared these final words with her group of seniors just ahead of another round of preparations for the state competition, “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it, because we know you can.”