Suddenly, everyone in the room goes silent. All eyes are on her. As the judges watch, senior Farah Abubaker begins her performance.

“I’ve worked a lot to get where I am,” Abubaker said. “To me, excuses weren’t going to cut it.”

Abubaker placed first in the Dramatic Interpretation (Interp) Meet at Naaman Forest High School on Oct. 25, which made her a state qualifier.

“It’s amazing,” Theatre Teacher and Speech Coach Victoria Williams said. “It’s well deserved, (because) she’s an extremely hard worker.”

Interp is a form of competitive speech, which consists of a series of tournaments.

“They have to have that motivation, they have to have that desire to not just want to but have to do it,” Williams said.

At first, Interp was quite a struggle, Abubaker said.

“When I first got my piece, I was awful,” she said. “I was just reciting lines and not telling the story. Every day, I would watch myself in the mirror and make sure I got every facial detail right.”

Her discipline and dedication does not go unrecognized, Williams said.

“Every minute that she has, she works,” she said. “She’s an amazing student.”

Abubaker said her main goal wasn’t actually qualifying for state, but to tell a story that she was passionate about.

“My story is about a 17-year old girl from Palestine, who is facing the hardships of war while still taking care of her siblings,” she said. “She was the oldest of her four siblings and was forced to learn how to become a mother.”

Though Abubaker is the first to qualify, there are three performers who have individually earned seven out of the 12 points needed to qualify for state.

“I’m working on the five points that I need for state,” junior Madeline Loftin said.

Williams is already making her own predictions as far as state goes.

“I think the next person that’s going to qualify for state will be Madeline,” she said. “She has been working extremely hard.”

Junior Ilka Megee is also among the three with seven points.

“Being so close to qualifying, I hope to do well in the following tournaments of the season (and) to grow as a performer,” she said.

Last year, Megee qualified and competed at the state level.

“It’s definitely a humbling experience,” she said.

Abubaker said she is learning as she goes.

“Looking and sounding believable is only 70 percent of a performance,” she said. “You must feel true and honest as well. I constantly research about my piece and read stories with correlating problems.”

To get to state, these performers have to go through about 12 tournaments that end in January.

“We are hoping that we can get to nationals,” Williams said. “It’s going to be a good year.”