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.
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.”
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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.”
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“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.
Shyre • Jan 31, 2025 at 2:34 pm
Woohoo! Superstars :))