A Light in the Darkness: Aviana Cova

At 7:45 am on Wednesday, Nov. 20, Aviana Cova was found vacuuming the auditorium to help prep for the elementary matinee. Cova noticed how messy it had gotten and tried to fill in where help was needed.
Similarly, Cova prioritizes creating a clean performance to create an incredible experience for each person in the audience.
Cova, a senior at Highland, was a lead for the play Hadestown. She acted as the character Persephone, Hades’ wife. The story of Persephone is about how, for half of the year, she gets to be up in the sun—creating spring and summertime—and the other half of the year she goes to the underworld to live with Hades. This means the sun hides, creating fall and winter. In the musical, Persephone fights for what she loves and in the end is successful.
Cova feels that she relates to her character in that she believes it is important to fight for what you love, and she is a big fan of spending time in the sun.
Singing has always been a big part of Cova’s life as she has strived for excellence with her drive for forward progress.
“Aviana has always had an amazing ear for music and loved being on stage,” Cameron Cova, Aviana’s mother, said, “as a toddler she would sing along in perfect tune with every song we played.”
Cova has a very powerful voice and as she sang, her music filled the entirety of the auditorium. Her words were clear, and her dance moves on point. She took this character as her own and did very well. Cova has always loved music and the opportunity to express her emotions through song with a natural passion.
“Once I started talking, I started singing,” Cova said.
Cova is now the president of Theater Council and two theater clubs at Highland. With lots of leadership opportunities she has always risen to the occasion, leading by example. This includes vacuuming at 7:45 in the morning to emphasize brilliance.
As Drama Club President, Cova worked on designing posters and the programs throughout the past few years. These experiences helped her learn how to recognize when there are needs and the power she has as a leader to step up and serve the theater community.
“It is so important to me to step up and do so much for this department that has done so much for me,” Cova said. “I am really so proud of what we do.”
Sarah Ragey expressed that through Cova’s efforts, a ripple effect has taken place as her example encourages others to do the same. Ragey said that Cova is always the first one off book and is a very friendly fun social person to have in the cast.
“She has just been excellent since freshman year,” Ragey said.
Cova has been in the Theater Productions class all four years of High School. Ragey explained that she usually puts only one to two freshmen in this class and Cova looked like she was ready. This has been a huge time commitment, but she stepped up to the plate.
As a sophomore she got the lead Joe March in the play Little Women. A character that is on stage most of the time with a lot of responsibility on their shoulders for the success of the show. This experience helped teach Cova the importance of going into challenges with a positive attitude and grew to love the idea of storytelling even with all the pressure that was on her shoulders.
She was able to perform on the stage at the Eccles Theater because she was a finalist for the Best Actress Award in the Utah High School Theater Awards. She performed with many different students across the state and loved this experience and the lessons she learned.
Another play that Cova loved being a part of was Peter and the Star Catcher. This play was oriented more around comedy. She loved being able to interact more with the audience as they would do something funny and get the audience laughing. In this production she acted as one of the Lost Boys.
Throughout all these experiences and opportunities Cova has continued to prove her well execution of every role she is given and goes beyond what is expected.
“She is very professional and has a high drive for excellence,” Ragey said.
Cova doesn’t let herself slack in school either. Her dream is to work in the medical field. Yet she still hopes to find her way back to the stage again someday.