On January 31, senior Kira Player won Second Place Dramatic Monologue from the Speech and Theatre Association of New Jersey at the Governor’s Awards Competition.

Having performed 4 different monologues throughout the competition, the one she received her award for was from a play entitled House Arrest by Anna Deveare Smith.

Winning second place was certainly no easy feat, as Player competed against approximately 100 other students in the preliminary rounds of her category. At the end of the round, those 100 students were reduced down to 12: the 12 finalists.

By this time, Player had began to feel the pressure of being a finalist in the competition. Player admits, “I felt a little nervous waiting outside the classroom I was going to compete in, but I knew a few tricks to calm myself down and I really just focused on getting into character as a way to take my mind off the situation.”

Player walked into the classroom and nailed her monologue, which of course earned her an extremely impressive second place finish. The award came as a complete surprise to her, as she wasn’t expecting to win at all.

Winning the award not only meant a lot to Player, but it meant even more to the fellow Pascack Valley actors she attended the competition with. Calvin Rezen, Alex Brennan, Alexis Parsells, and Laura Santo all participated in the competition as well, and were more than excited to see their friend take home a trophy for her amazing work.

While Player did not win a college scholarship at the Governor’s Awards Competition for delivering a separate dramatic monologue, she was still perfectly happy with who did end up taking it home.

“I didn’t win the college scholarship, but the two boys who did were so ecstatic when they found out – it was really touching,” said Player.

Ever since she attended an acting workshop in fourth grade, Player knew acting was something she wanted to continue with, even if it started off as more of a hobby. One thing she did gain from the workshop, however, was the knowledge that she very much liked acting alone on stage, something that many actors have trouble doing.

She continued to work on musicals in middle school, but mainly just because her friends were doing so. It wasn’t until she reached high school that she truly understood what it meant to be a part of a stage production.

Player said, “When I got to high school and performed in The Laramie Project, I saw the seniors working hard and performing so wonderfully, and I really wanted to do that. My sophomore year I was the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet and that experience showed me that acting was a possibility for me career-wise. My decision to pursue acting in college and afterwards was helped along by the fact that I won an award for my portrayal of the Nurse.”

On inspirations of her own, Player says she loves actors such as Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Miles Teller, Meryl Streep and Lupita Nyong’o.

Player can next be seen performing in the PV Theatre production of Anything Goes on March 19, 20 and 21.