1 State Thespian Officer 1 Tech Scholar 2 Excellent Ratings 41 College Callbacks
Winning Thescon PERFORMANCE PERFECT: Seniors Josiah Haan and Isaiah Henry perform their Individual Event in which they ended up getting a superior. They had planned to top their performance from the previous year. “It was really really nice because there were so many workshops and opportunities to kind of improve my skill. I got to audition for colleges so it kind of gave me a path towards the future in the acting profession,” Henry said. PHOTO BY ZOE MICHALS
Spotlight Players snatch “Excellent” ratings at annual conference
By Ruthann Kimbrel
Staff Reporter Getting on the stage to accept a scholarship in front of hundreds of people who share the love of theatre and those who also wanted that scholarship, adrenaline rushed through senior Josiah Haan’s veins as he crossed the stage to accept his Tech Scholarship from a college representative at the annual Troupe 5743 trip to the Missouri State Thespian Conference or Thescon 2020, which was held in Kansas City, Missouri. Thescon is a yearly convention for theatre groups nationwide that helps actors and actresses grow their talent set, and provide college scholarships and community building opportunities. “It is such an amazing learning opportunity. You get to go to so many workshops, whether it be acting workshops, singing workshops, lighting workshops or set workshops, really anything you can imagine, so in this one little weekend you can learn so much, but also what it does is builds community so I’ve made so many friends through Thescon and it strengthens the relationships I have made with people here,” Haan said. Haan, along with fellow senior Isaiah Henry, participated in one of the individual events and got the highest award possible for his performance. “We did win last year too and were lucky enough to get a superior. Then this year we were like ‘we’re going to top ourselves and do even better!’ and we scored superior again and it was so exciting because getting that rating is such an honor and that means we qualify for nationals, which is really really cool,” Haan said. “I was so excited because I’m going into technical theatre for college and as my career and for this, I had to set up a table that had a ton of my work and documentation of the work I’ve done, and then college representatives came through and talked to me for about 20 minutes each about what I’ve done,” Haan said.
When he received the award, everyone who knew him cheered for his accomplishment that he worked hard for and Haan was in complete shock. “It was a very long four hour process but when it got announced that I had won it, I was very ecstatic. The scholarship was a really nice surprise as well as our team that did the tech design challenge and they got superior as well so that was a surprise,” said Haan. “It was just a very good weekend.” Along with Haan and Henry, senior Catherine Analla also participated in the college scholarship performances. “We were called back to multiple colleges and I think in total for us, because we were the only three that did scholarships, I think we got a total of 41 college callbacks now,” Henry said. Henry, excited for the callbacks, also praises the troupe as a whole for getting the Honor Troupe Award. “Our troupe was selected as Honor Troupe, which means we’ve been very involved in the thespian community, have helped out other troupes and have taken our theater into the real community and expanded on that and that was probably our biggest group achievement,” Henry said. Henry believes Thescon is most important due to the workshops being led by professionals in certain departments and the chance to show off their talents to the attendees. “It has a lot of workshops with professionals, whether it’s acting or technical or dancing. And you get to learn so much. Just about whatever you’re interested in theatre and also improve and make connections through with other troops or with the people that are in the professional business,” Henry said. “It also gives us performance opportunities with
FEATURE
the scholarships and paths towards the future with colleges and there’s an improv show and a tech show that we participate in which gives us more opportunities to perform and kind of showcase what we have in our truth on a statewide level,” Henry said. On the tech side of the stage, junior Margaret Wilkerson participated in a scenic design competition with the design crew she works with during musicals and plays. “It was kind of nerve wracking because we had to bring all of our own supplies and the rules were kind of foggy so we had to kind of take our best guess and get all the stuff we thought we might need, even weird stuff we didn’t think we realized we’d even need, so we kind of over prepared and brought a lot of stuff but it was really fun,” Wilkerson said. “I really love my work and the group that I worked with, and it helped me build a better bond with them and have fun with them,” Wilkerson said. Wilkerson and her group did the competition project over the play ‘She Kills Monsters’ by Qui Ngyen. “So it’s kind of her journey, she plays Dungeons and Dragons since her sister used to play it all the time. So she gets to know who our sister was and she kind of accepts her [sister’s] death and moves through it. So we kind of built this tree that was holding all the different levels together, because it was kind of like the whole theme of family, grief and forgiveness,” Wilkerson said. “I think our thing we made was the most complex out of all the ones of all the people [participating] but it was kind of messy because there was just so much that we tried to pack onto this tiny thing, but it was really exciting because we were the first group to ever go and actually connect something that good,” Wilkerson said.
Page by Natalie Walsh and Ruthann Kimbrel
9
