VALLEY DRAMA TEAM SHOWS STAR POWER.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

The kids from Sun Valley looked out from the school bus windows at the million-dollar homes, the lush, green lawns that seemed to stretch for miles up long driveways, the ocean waves crashing against the rocks, and they had only one word for it.

Wow!

It made them nervous, a few of them would admit later. Made them feel like maybe they didn't belong up here on the Palos Verdes peninsula, on their way to a drama competition against kids from some of the wealthiest schools in Southern California, from Carlsbad to Santa Barbara.

There were no million-dollar homes like this in their Sun Valley neighborhood dominated by apartment houses. No lush lawns, and certainly no ocean in their back yard.

The closest thing they had was maybe a small pool they shared with 30 other apartment units, if they were lucky. That was about it.

Robert Arnold smiled, listening to his kids from Sun Valley Middle School wow this and wow that as the school bus slowly made its way through the exclusive peninsula to Palos Verdes High School last weekend.

The 33-year-old drama teacher knew he had his team ready for this elite competition known as the Olympic Games of drama festivals because it's as pure as drama competition gets.

No props, no scenery, and no fancy costumes that could influence the judges. Only four chairs on a stage, and the innate talent of each kid.

An even playing field, is the way Amanda Swann, president of the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California, put it Wednesday. Her organization of more than 100 drama teachers sponsored the competition.

Swann knew some of these kids from the more well-heeled schools and magnet arts programs had their own private drama teachers or a family member in the acting profession.

They already had a leg up. Give them the chance to surround themselves with expensive props and scenery, and it would be an unfair advantage to schools like Sun Valley that couldn't afford them.

``Everybody has to have an equal chance to succeed on that stage,'' Swann said. ``It shouldn't matter where you live or what your parents do for a living.''

No glitz, just pure talent and hard work - each team laying its acting talents on the line for the judges to decide who was best.

Which is why Arnold was smiling. He grew up in the same Sun Valley neighborhood these kid were growing up in now - went to the same schools they're going to. He knew.

From Carlsbad to Santa Barbara, there weren't kids who worked harder or longer to succeed then the kids from Sun Valley.

It was like what 13-year-old Dennis Ruelas would say later, ``What matters is your teacher and the students themselves, not what school you're from or what area you live in.''

The kid was a prophet. On the drive home that day, the only wows the 36 drama students from Sun Valley let out on the school bus were for the trophies they had won.

When the judges added up all the points, the top team from the 40 schools in the competition wasn't from Carlsbad, Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills or any of the magnet arts schools.

It was from Sun Valley Middle School.

``I'm so proud of these kids, especially with all the problems and pressures they face everyday,'' Arnold said Wednesday.

``A lot of them are latch-key kids, with parents seldom home because they're working two or three jobs. They have to walk to and from school on streets often controlled by gangs.

``It's dark now by the time we're through practicing everyday, but they never complain. Winning this competition is the payoff to a lot of hard work by some wonderfully talented kids.''

Maybe, say Lessly Reyna and Max Gipson, both 13, but you don't win the Olympics without a great coach.

``If it wasn't for Mr. Arnold, we would never have won,'' Reyna said. ``We were all pretty nervous competing against bigger schools where the kids were used to being around places like that (the peninsula).''

But when the competition got started, so did their confidence, Gipson said. Up on that stage, there were no class differences - no rich or poor.

The kids from Sun Valley weren't saying wow anymore.

``We could see the other kids were good, but so were we,'' Gipson said. ``We did what Mr. Arnold said we should do.

``We won.''

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Robert Arnold's drama students at Sun Valley Middle School have a slew of new trophies to show for their collective stellar performance during the Olympic Games of drama festivals, an event held last weekend at Palos Verdes High School.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer