Spotlight is a scholarship and training program, which encourages personal and artistic growth, while exploring new possibilities in the arts! Click here to view the list of MCHS students who have been chosen.
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Six outstanding Mira Costa graduates were honored on Friday, September 22 for their positive contributions to society. Inductees were featured at assemblies and feted at breakfast and lunch receptions before being celebrated at the football half-time show Friday evening. Click the shield to see their biographies.
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Mira Costa Drama/Tech’s production of Oklahoma! was nominated in seven categories of theatrical achievement at the John Raitt Awards for Youth Musical Theatre Performance
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"The South Bay Show" featured a podcast interview with Michael Hayden, Director of Choirs, Mark McCormick, Pianist, and students Kayla Elson, Emily Chase, Isabel Gray, Azaan Esmail, and Kavita Sarathy from Mira Costa Choirs. Click the icon to listen.
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Mira Costa High School returns to the Manhattan Beach Art Center for its 17th Annual All Media Art Show, a culminating event for the Mira Costa Art Department that features select work of students from the 9th through 12th grades, showcasing their experimentations and explorations in a variety of artistic media.
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A big hand of applause for all Reflections Art Contest winners! Congratulations! Please click the picture to view all of Mira Costa's talented art winners.
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There are 10 students from MCHS who made the quarterfinal round of the Spotlight Awards. Spotlight is a nationally acclaimed scholarship and training program for high school students in Southern California.
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On Jan. 13th - 15th, Mira Costa's Drama/Tech students participated in the California Educational Theatre Association (CETA) Festival, where Costa won top honors in several categories for its production of Almost, Maine.
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Congratulations to Costa junior Philip Wah for being selected among an elite number of students across the country to participate in the Disney Dreamers Academy in March 2017. Intellectually curious, compassionate and courageous leaders are chosen each year for this honor. Congratulations, Philip!
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The Mira Costa Drama Department has been selected to perform their entire show of ALMOST, MAINE representing LA county at the CETA (California Educational Theatre Association) Festival in January..
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MCHS MUN's victory proved to be one of the largest in the last three years of MUN at Edison and it bodes well for the rest of the MUN season. Click for more information.
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A huge congratulation goes out to senior, CHLOE TOWNS for winning her 2nd consecutive National Championship in her weight class in Tai Kwon Do. In November, Chloe will be representing the United States in the Junior World Championships in Burnaby, Canada. We are very proud of your outstanding accomplishments you have made in your sport! We all wish you the very best in the world championships.
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Congratulations to freshman violinist Kevin Chen who was featured as a soloist with the Beach Cities Symphony in late May as one of four winners of the MTAC “Artist of the Future” Competition. As observed by Mira Costa orchestra director Mr. Park, “Kevin’s performance was outstanding. His exceptional skills and artistry on stage exemplified a level of maturity and energy that left the audience sitting on the edge of their seats!” Click photo for more.
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Congratulations to Broadcast Journalism student Miriam Sachs who was named MCHS Student of the Year. Miriam has been in Cinematic Arts and Broadcast Journalism classes since her freshman year and has created award-winning projects that have screened at festivals around the country. Click graphic for more and to see her video!
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Congratulations to the Mira Costa Bands and Orchestras on their stellar performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City this Memorial Day weekend. Over 266 students made the trip to New York where they saw the sights, caught a Broadway show and then played to a large crowd on this fabled stage under the direction of Joel Carlson and Peter Park. Their hard work and talent showed the best of our Mira Costa spirit.
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Isabelle Connor just competed at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY in USA Rhythmic Gymnastics National Qualifiers. Isabelle placed 1st in Hoop, 1st in Clubs, 2nd in Ball and 2nd All Around in the level 9 senior division. Better yet, Isabelle qualified for level 10, one of only 3 level 9 seniors nationally to be promoted. Isabelle is also Region 1 Champion Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, and State Champion. Way to Go Mustang!
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MCHS orchestra director Mr. Peter Park has been invited by the IU Jacobs School of Music to conduct the 2016 Indiana University Summer Music Clinic Orchestra. Held in Bloomington, Indiana each June, the IUSMC attracts advanced high school musicians annually from over 40 states as well as from several countries in Asia and Europe. According to Mr. Park, past guest conductors have included nationally renowned music clinicians and college professors, so it was a personal honor for him to accept this invitation.
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Congratulations to Mira Costa's Jazz 1 and Jazz 2 Bands! The Jazz 2 Band took first place in their division at the RCC Jazz Festival in Riverside on May 13, while the Jazz 1 class Combos took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in their division.
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BCR, comprised of students from Mira Costa and RUHS, took 3rd out of the 75 teams in their "Hopper" grouping (there were 600 total teams broken up in 8 groups). Despite a stellar performance, it was not enough to make the final (needed to be top team in the division). Click photo for details and a video of their robot in action!
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Costa senior Taya Stewart was awarded the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarship. As a recipient of this award, she will receive a fully funded scholarship covering tuition, books, and room and board through a doctorate degree. This highly selective program receives thousands of applications each year, with only 1,000 students receiving the award, which is funded by a $1 billion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Congratulations, Taya!
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After a year of hard work and dedication the team came up big winners! The team placed first in senior large jazz, senior large lyrical and senior large hip hop. The team won the Team Overall Highest Point Champions for the first time at Nationals and the big trophy!! Go Costa! Click picture for more.
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The Mira Costa HS Orchestras performed at an SCSBOA sanctioned music festival on March 16th at Millikan HS in Long Beach. The Philharmonic, Symphony, and Chamber Orchestras all earned a unanimous superior rating from the festival adjudicators. This is the highest possible rating reserved for groups that achieve "the finest conceivable performance…worthy of the distinction of being recognized as among the very best.” Congratulations to all orchestra students for their dedicated work!
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Congratulations to the MCHS Winterguard who placed 2nd in their Division on March 12 at the Lynwood High School Competition. Their show "The Lost Boys" is based on the story of Peter Pan in Neverland. Members of the Winterguard team are: Kyra Solis, Macy Jaeger, Abby Coleman, Kier'a Richard, Porter Hines and Stephan Oliveria.
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For the fourth year in a row, Mira Costa High School’s Drama Department has won Best Musical Theater performance at the Fullerton College High School Theatre Festival. Over 50 Southern California high schools participated in this two day competition. Costa Drama performed a five minute scene from “The Addams Family”, their upcoming spring musical. “The Addams Family” opens April 22.
For the first time in Costa’s history, our Technical Theater teams placed 1st and 2nd overall in the Tech Olympics category. The Tech teams won a total of 9 medals in categories such as Wiring, Costume Quick Change and Tool Identification. In addition, Mira Costa took top honors in Theater Games — a competition of improvisional games.
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Last weekend Beach Cities Robotics Team competed in the FIRST LA Regional Competition. The team finished 2nd overall in a competition with 66 teams competing! The team’s 2nd place ranking enabled the team to advance to compete in the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO at the end of April. Click photo for pics and details.
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Four thousand students from schools of 13 different nations around the world competed over 3 1/2 days. Mira Costa is a "3 peat" champion from past years. Our team consisted of 40 students: 7 seniors, 18 juniors and 15 sophomores. When we go to NY we go to compete at one of the most elite and well run conferences in the world. Other groups tour, we take on the best and the brightest. Any country, any topic, any time.
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At a recent competition, Mira Costa's Dance Team received 1st place in jazz, small jazz and lyrical divisions; 2nd in hip hop. Caprina Benson and Samantha Lonergan won 1st place with their solos. These high scores qualified the Team for division champions in three categories! Now they have to figure out where to showcase their 5-foot trophy. Good luck in Nationals!
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Congratulations to Miriam Sachs, the first Mustang to both compete at and place in the state-level competition of Poetry Out Loud! As the Los Angeles County winner, Miriam went on to compete at the state capitol against 38 other contestants from counties all over California...and she was awarded 3rd place!
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Congratulations to our Mustang musicians who were invited to perform with the 2016 All-Southern and All-State Honor Bands and Orchestras. These accomplished student-musicians were selected through a competitive audition process that involved several hundreds of highly skilled high school students from throughout California. Click here for a list of our honor musicians.
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Congratulations to the twenty-four student musicians who performed in the Rotary Solo Music Competition Finals on Thurs., January 21. Each finalist advanced by performing in a competitive preliminary round earlier in the month. Click here for a complete list of finalists.
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Costa girls joined Vox Femina, one of the premier women’s choruses in the United States with a demonstrated ability to perform highly eclectic repertoire, for the 3rd year in a row Sunday night for a brilliant performance.
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Congratulations to the MCHS Marching Band and Colorguard who had a fantastic performance at the Oxnard H.S. Tournament on Nov.7, with the band winning Tournament Sweepstakes (including all caption awards). Percussion placed 1st in the 4A division, while Colorguard placed second. What a great outcome for all their hard work!
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The Mira Costa Marching Band and Colorguard gave a stellar effort in their 2nd of 5 field competitions on Oct. 17 in their show : "Stratosphere Above the Clouds." They placed first in their 4A division for Band and Auxiliary and Percussion placed first in Sweepstakes!
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On both the US News and Newsweek rankings Mira Costa is listed in the top 500 high schools in the Nation! Mira Costa’s Newsweek ranking is 341. Mira Costa’s US News ranking is 375 and received Gold medal distinction. Click headline for more info!
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Pooja Nagpal was selected by Girl Scouts of the USA to receive the prestigious Young Woman of Distinction Award (YWOD). Only 10 women are honored each year across the country with this award which is determined by their outstanding Gold Award project. Pooja and her family will travel to New York next month to receive her award.
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The emphasis is on empowering students to create authentic products that they can share with others beyond the classroom walls. Click headline for link to EdSurge story.
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We are proud to announce that rising sophomore PLEIA HALL achieved a perfect score on the 2015 National Latin Exam. Less than 1% of students across the globe attained this distinction. We are happy for Pleia and for her Latin teacher, Mr. Cook!
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Congratulations to Andrew Neal and Sara Kohrogi who were finalists in the NSSA (National Scholastic Surfing Association) High School National Championships held June 13-14, 2015 at Salt Creek. Sara finished 4th in the women's division and Andrew finished 6th in the men's longboard division.
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We are pleased to announce that the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars has selected Costa senior Julia McDermott as one of 20 students in the country to receive this honor in the visual and performing arts. Julia will be recognized in Washington, D.C. in June where she will also get to perform at The Kennedy Center. Congratulations, Julia!
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Andrew Anton, Kayla Elson, and Antonio Sellitto were selected to the 2015 California All State Honor Choir. In late March, our Mira Costa singers joined with 130 others from around the state for a weekend of intensive rehearsals, culminating in a beautiful concert. Congratulations to our outstanding singers.
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Congratulations to Moses Aubrey who was one of only fifteen musicians selected to receive a full scholarship to tour Japan for a joint youth orchestra program exchange! Facilitated by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, student musicians from the U.S. performed with the Soma Children’s Orchestra & Chorus, including a combined open rehearsal with Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the LA Phil. The selection process included a written application and essay, as well as an interview and solo audition for a panel of five music judges. Moses is currently a senior and serves as the principal bassist of the Mira Costa Symphony Orchestra. Click this headline to read more about the LA Phil’s collaboration in Japan.
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Leonard Chong, senior violinist and concertmaster of the Mira Costa Symphony Orchestra, recently performed at the Music Teachers National Association Performance Competition in Las Vegas, NV. Competing in the Chamber Music Strings category, Leonard was joined by his brother and Mira Costa alum Erick Chong on cello, along with pianist Isabella Ma. To qualify for the National Finals, contestants had to advance from the state and regional division rounds. As the 1st place winner, Leonard’s trio received a $3,000 prize, as well as the distinction of being the first group from California since 2003 to advance to the finals round, let alone winning the competition.
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Costa's Dance team was outstanding March 15 at their 2nd regional competition!!!
1st Place Soloist, Jazz: Samantha Lonergan
1st Place Soloist, Lyrical: Quinn Gardner
1st Place, Jazz Routine
1st Place, Lyrical Routine
Division Champions, Lyrical
1st Place, Hip Hop Trio
Best Jumps 1st Place: Samantha Lonergan
2nd Place, Best Turns: Samantha Lonergan
3rd Place, Best Jumps: Caprina Benson
and Most Spirited Team!!!
GO COSTA!!!!
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Mira Costa was recently named Best School at the Pacific Coast Championships at Berkeley MUN February 27 - March 1. Just days later, Costa won Best School at the National High School MUN conference in New York March 4-7. Top winners in Berkeley: Katie Shalvarjian, Fran Caflisch, Natasha Brunstein, Walker Heintz, Eva Abramson, Tooba Wasi, TJ Ford, Catherine An and Risha Rohera. Top winners at NHSMUN: Momo Bolsajian, Sarah James, Rachel Waxman, Erin Clifford, Louis Yudowitz, Haley Kay and Maggie Hackney.
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The first ever Mira Costa National Ocean Science Bowl team competed in the Los Angeles Regional Surf Bowl on Saturday at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where they beat Peninsula by a score of 66-26 on their way to the 8th round and finishing in 5th place behind some very stiff competition. This is the farthest that any first year team has made it, and we look forward to doing even better and building the program in the following years!
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Mira Costa student Isabelle Connor placed 3rd All Around in her division at the USA Rhythmic Gymnastics Invitational Feb. 14 & 15 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. She then went on to compete at the Moscow Grand Prix Juniors Tournament Feb. 19-23 in Russia. Congratulations, Isabelle!
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Julia McDermott and Darynn Dean were both named finalist winners in The Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Awards in the non-classical voice category. They both will receive $5,000 and will each be singing a solo at The Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown at the awards ceremony on March 31st. They were the two winners out of 532 high school students from all over Southern California who competed in this category. It's an extremely hard competition to win and to have both winners in the same category from the same high school is unheard of. They both went through 3 rounds of auditions over 3 months. Darynn sings jazz and Julia sings musical theatre.
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Congratulations to the twenty-one student musicians who performed in the Rotary Solo Music Competition Finals on Fri., June 30th. Each finalist advanced by performing in a competitive preliminary round earlier in January. Their performances on Friday night were executed at an exceptional level, and represented very well the high standards of our music program and school community. Click headline for a complete list of finalists and prize winners.
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Costa senior Phoebe Lyons participated in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Western Regional Final Sunday, January 18 and won in the Upper High School Classical Women Category. Phoebe will now be going to the NATS Finals to compete on July 7, at University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Founded in 1944, NATS is the largest professional association of teachers of singing in the world with more than 7,000 members in the United States, Canada, and nearly 30 other countries. Congratulations, Phoebe!
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Congratulations to Kevin's Warehouse, this year's undisputed MCHS Dodgeball Champions! Bringing home the trophy for Kevin's Warehouse: Trevor Franklin, Reese Alexiades, Dylan Tyrer, Rollie Nichols, Jackson Michalski, Ty Conrad and Tommy Bothwell.
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Four choir students were selected for the Southern California Vocal Association Senior High School Honor Choirs: Andrew Anton, Kayla Elson, Owen Konsmo, and Antonio Sellitto. Congratulations to these fine students for being selected for these exceptional SCVA Honor Choirs.
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Darynn Dean was selected as a Young Arts Finalist and will be traveling to Miami, Florida, to participate in the National Young Arts Week January 4-11, 2015. She will participate in master classes in the area of Vocal Jazz. This nationally recognized programs offers exceptional educational opportunities and scholarships for the finest high school talent. Additionally, for the second year in a row, Darynn has been selected to sing in the GRAMMY All-Star Vocal Jazz Ensemble. She is one of eight singers, one of two altos, chosen nationally to participate in this ensemble and perform during the GRAMMY week festivities, including singing at the closing party the night of the GRAMMY Awards. Congratulations to Darynn!
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Mira Costa High School senior Ryan Cosner received a very special honor on September 24 when it was announced that he is one of only 125 musicians across the nation selected to perform with the United States Army All-American Marching Band. Over 1,300 marching band students were nominated for this honor. Only four from California were selected and Ryan is one of them. This is the first time that a Mira Costa High School student has been inducted into this national marching band. Ryan was selected for his exceptional musicianship, marching achievement, character, and leadership. Ryan is a very popular leader of the Mira Costa bands as a Drum Major of the marching band and trombone player in the Jazz Band, Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. At the award celebration, his fellow band members burst into song and applause to congratulate him. Ryan receives an all-expenses paid trip to San Antonio to perform during half-time of the US Army All-American Football game on January 3, 2015.
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Alex Luo, a freshman violinist and member of the Mira Costa Symphony, was one of four musicians selected to perform a featured solo with the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra in late May. Through the “Artist of the Future” Competition organized by the South Bay chapter of the Music Teachers’ Association of California, Alex competed against some of the most talented student musicians from across the South Bay, spanning both the instrumental and vocal categories. According to Mr. Park who attended the concert, “Alex was the hit of the night. Getting to play a solo with an orchestra is a huge honor that only comes by every so often. He pulled off his performance with excellent skill, command, and artistry.” Congratulations Alex!
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CONGRATULATIONS to freshman PAIGE RICHARDSON for her outstanding achievements in diving. She placed 3rd overall in the CIF - Southern Section Diving Championships. Thank you for putting Mira Costa back on the diving map in athletics!
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Erick Chong, a senior cellist and member of the Mira Costa Symphony Orchestra, recently competed in the nationally acclaimed Spotlight Awards, sponsored by the Los Angeles Music Center. Over 2,300 talented student artists auditioned for this program in several categories, including voice, instrumental, art, and dance. 124 students advanced to the semifinals round, and then 16 were selected as finalists to perform in the awards show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, hosted by Oscar-nominated actor John Lithgow. As a finalist, Erick earned the runner-up prize in the Classical Instrumental division that included a $4,000 scholarship award. Congratulations Erick for this distinguished achievement!
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Under the direction of Coach Richard Hernandez and Advisor Stefani Owen, the Mira Costa Winter Guard team won silver in Division Intermediate A at the Winter Guard Association of Southern California Championships in Huntington Beach on Saturday, April 12. The team placed second with a Twilight Zone-themed show and a score of 84.28. Their award-winning performance earned them a coveted invitation to the WGASC Championship Finals at UCI Bren Events Center on Sunday - a first for Mira Costa's team. Their final performance capped off an award-winning season and earned the team a 4th place overall win - beating out over 40 teams across Southern California. Congratulations to the team for their amazing achievement.
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Congratulations to the Mira Costa Competitive Concert Percussion Ensemble for their FIRST PLACE performance at the WGI (Winter Guard International) Western Percussion Championship in San Bernardino March 22 and 23. Saturday, the ensemble received a score of 87, which earned them 1st place in the scholastic concert "A" division. Sunday, the ensemble really turned it up during their performance by jumping up 3.5 points earning them not only another 1st place, but also a score of 90.5 becoming the first ever Mira Costa Band performance ensemble to break in to the 90's!
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For the second year in a row, Mira Costa’s Drama Department has won the Sweepstakes Award at the Fullerton College High School Theatre Festival. Approximately 60 Southern California high schools participated. The top award is presented to the school with the most overall points. In addition, Mira Costa took top honors in Musical Theater — which featured 49 entries — with a first-place win for a 10-minute scene from “Peter Pan,” their upcoming spring musical. Peter Pan opens April 25. Click headline for more!
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