Members of the International Thespian Society went to Corpus Christi for the Texas Thespian Festival in November. Twelve of the students who attended the four-day festival became national qualifiers for various categories in acting or tech.
To nationally qualify, each participant had to prepare something called an IE, which is either a handmade project, a presentation or some sort of live performance. As they presented, they were given a specific score, which determined whether or not they qualify.
State thespian officer Emerson Harris, a senior, participated in the contrasting monologues category.
“My first monologue was a monologue that I had performed for a one-act play competition, so I already had it pretty well memorized,” she said. “My second monologue was picked out of the script library in the classroom. When I first performed it, it made everyone laugh while I jokingly read through it.”
Before the students presented, the festival days were filled with various theater workshops spanning from ballroom dancing to kung-fu.
“During Thespians, I took a lot of dance workshops,” senior Sarah Orth said, “because it’s my last year of doing theater and I don’t plan on taking it elsewhere. So I just wanted to work on what I still plan to do, which is dancing.”
Although most of the trip is having fun with friends and learning new skills, the preparation and workload can be very stressful. Orth, who participated in improv and costume design, had a lot to prepare. She ultimately qualified in both categories for nationals.
“I did costume design,” Orth said, “and I don’t think people recognize how much research goes into it. It’s also a lot of creativity that you need to pull and renderings and setting things up. It’s a lot to do.”
Harris also suffered from a lot of stress during the festival, because of her duties as a state officer.
“My days were filled with preparing for presentations and workshops,” Harris said. “Before my IE, I had been working at the interviews that morning and going over my presentation slides with other state thespian officers. So I had been a little stressed about both presenting my IE and presenting my workshop.”
Everyone who attended worked hard for this festival, and it’s something that all thespians look forward to during the fall. It’s a time to make memories, be with friends, improve various theatrical skills and appreciate the arts.
“This is my favorite high school trip I will ever take,” Harris said. “I will tell everyone to go a thousand times over. Those will be the best four days of my life. Seeing it end was really bittersweet, but I’m grateful for everything that the Texas Thespian Festival has given me anyways.”
