Skip to Content
Categories:

Two students get awarded ‘Golden Tickets,’ prepare for International Thespian Festival

Leah Gilmore (12), sitting in the front row in the middle in blue, poses with ThesCon All State members. Gilmore performed with these students from high schools throughout Colorado during the opening ceremony at ThesCon. (Provided by Leah Gilmore)
Leah Gilmore (12), sitting in the front row in the middle in blue, poses with ThesCon All State members. Gilmore performed with these students from high schools throughout Colorado during the opening ceremony at ThesCon. (Provided by Leah Gilmore)

ThesCon took place Dec. 12-14. It is a theater convention that seeks to educate and support theater students.

“I just feel like it’s a little theater vacation … it’s like a time where our theater students can, like, get together and go see other shows, see other people and really learn what it’s like to be a theater student,” theater teacher and director Julie Estrada (staff) said.

Students are able to do workshops and watch performances during ThesCon.

“We get to experience different workshops … I think there’s like … singing ones, there’s improv ones, acting ones, a lot of dancing ones, and it’s a lot of fun,” Kylee Reinman (10) said. 

Story continues below advertisement

There’s more than just performance-based classes; there are also technical theater classes.

“Behind the scenes, like every single type of technical theater workshop you can (think of) and you just go to as many as you can … and you get to hang out with like 4,000 to 5,000 other theater kids,” Leah Gilmore (12) said.

Students that participate in ThesCon can choose to do an Individual Event, commonly known as an IE. During an IE, students prepare and perform a song, scene or tech presentation.

“We would … practice, practice, practice, practice,” Gilmore, who participated in two IEs, said. “Like you have to be able to express your story just through your body and your face and like what actions you’re doing.”

During an IE students perform in front of adjudicators, who judge the performance and give a score based on specific criteria.

“Everyone is really, really good, and it’s incredible,” Reinman said. Reinman participated in one IE, performing “Honey Bun” from “South Pacific.”

student sings in front of others
Kylee Reinman (10) performs her individual event. She performed “Honey Bun” from “South Pacific” and received an overall superior rating, meaning she gets to attend the International Thespian Festival. (Gisele Gates)

The best score a student can receive on a IE is an overall superior. Both Gilmore and Reinman received overall superior ratings.

Students who receive this level of rating are invited to perform at the International Thespian Festival (ITF) in Bloomington, Indiana.

“Nationals (ITF) is the bigger version of ThesCon and it’s a whole week,” Estrada said.

Students know if they made it to ITF based on whether they’ve received a “golden ticket.”

Two students pose with golden tickets
Leah Gilmore (12) and Kylee Reinman (10) pose with their “golden tickets.” They earned these tickets for their Individual Events and qualified for the International Thespian Festival.(Julie Estrada)

“This is the first they’ve done the golden ticket thing,” Estrada said, “but I think that’s a really cool marketing tool.”

During ThesCon, theater advisers are given a golden ticket for each student who received an overall superior score; the adviser then gets to present the golden ticket to their student. Both Reinman and Gilmore were excited to be told in this way.

“Before even getting the tickets, I was just like, ‘Wow, I’ve been doing this for four years and I finally got overall superior,’” Gilmore said. “It felt pretty good to finally, like, have my hard work pay off … I still have it and I stare at it all the time.”

Reinman shared Gilmore’s enthusiasm.

“I felt like crying, but I didn’t feel like crying, but I was just really happy,” Reinman said.

Donate to The Windsor Chronicle
$25
$500
Contributed
Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of Windsor High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Windsor Chronicle
$25
$500
Contributed
Our Goal