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Updated: January 2, 2025 @ 8:48 pm
Cliff Williams / TPI Wetumpka High School senior Atlas Barr inspects her clock she built for a prop and is part of a portfolio of her work. She made the clockface rotate via remote control .
Staff Writer
Cliff Williams / TPI Wetumpka High School senior Atlas Barr inspects her clock she built for a prop and is part of a portfolio of her work. She made the clockface rotate via remote control .
No permanent stage and no scene shop are a problem for Wetumpka High School’s Atlas Barr.
Despite the challenges of a workspace that is constantly moving, Barr created a theater prop that not only competed against those with vast workshops, but bested them. She was named the Mary Nell Sloan Endowed Technical Theatre Scholarship winner and won the state championship in prop design at this year’s Alabama Conference of Theatre State Trumbauer Show.
“It’s just phenomenal, what she did,” Wetumpka High School Theater Guild director Jeff Glass said. “She was able to do it when others had space and storage to walk away from their props.”
Barr was more than pleased with her win because of how few scholarships are awarded.
“I was really, really excited, especially since the technical scholarships are even more exclusive than the ones for actors,” Barr said. “They only give out one a year.”
Glass was pleased to see Barr get the award as it highlights Wetumpka’s students are successful in more than just acting.
“Even without a theater our kids have a reputation in the state,” Glass said.
As a group, they brought home a Best in Show. It is the second in a row and third out of the last four years.
Barr’s awards involved creating a large grandfather clock in several pieces so that she could easily store it. It involved a remote controlled revolving clock face.
Even Barr’s presentation to judges had to be moved.
“The prop is so big, it wouldn’t fit in the room we were supposed to audition in,” Barr said. “I had to set it up in the hallway and discuss it.”
Moving around and adjusting to the environment was natural to Barr. The clock started to form after last year’s trumbauer show. She began to look for ways to improve it.
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Parts of it were constructed at her home.
“It was mostly outside and I would move it in every day,” Barr said.
The clock tower was also built to make moving from the lunchroom stage to a storage area easier. It also made transportation easier.
Along the way Barr had to learn about electronics and remote controls.
It was all while balancing her leadership role in the guild backstage and taking three AP classes.
To win the scholarship, Barr had to create a portfolio of her work. It showed how she learned to use a heat gun to alter pool noodles to create the reef part of a set for Finding Nemo. A similar technique was used on her award winning clock.
“It helped save a lot of weight,” Barr said.
One might think Barr has years of experience under her belt, but Barr is only a senior. She did not get involved in theater until the second semester of her freshman year after receiving an invitation from a friend.
Barr’s experience has always been backstage and never directly in front of an audience.
The technical theater scholarship will aid Barr in furthering her education. But she still has her eyes set on more. She is already on track to attend Troy University following graduation as she has acquired multiple academic requirements to get in. She is currently working to receive more scholarships to attend the university.
Staff Writer
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A clear sky. Low 31F. Winds light and variable.
A clear sky. Low 31F. Winds light and variable.
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