DTASC is up and running! The members of DTASC this spring are preparing for the Shakespeare Festival, which takes place on April 5, 2014. There are 4 Marymount groups set to compete in 3 categories—Clowns and Fools, Quest for the Throne, and Children’s Theatre. Many groups are practicing hard, from rehearsals once a week to rehearsals once a day, all for a five-minute scene! This competition is harder for some members than the fall festival because most scenes must be performed in original Shakespeare. Others are permitted to be adapted, like the Children’s Theatre, where a Shakespeare play is cut down into five minutes and acted out as if it were being shown to younger children. The Clowns and Fools Category is centered around comedy, and one group is focusing on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, specifically the conflict surrounding Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander. The day of the festival is jam-packed, starting at 7 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m., and often groups will perform their scenes more than twice. DTASC becomes interesting when viewing the competition—watching scenes of other people helps better the scene of one’s own when seeing what works for others and what does not, and it is also exciting to see who is running up against all the hard work put into these scenes.