Another big day...

The final installment of the 2015 Student Leadership Program.

Chapter Select Showcase: Jerry Finnegan’s Sister (Kentucky Thespians, Troupe 3161, Owensboro High School), ‘dentity Crisis (Maryland Thespians, Troupe 3707, Bullis School), Smokey Joe’s Café (Indiana Thespians, Troupe 5151, Silver Creek High School), Lockdown (New Jersey Thespians, Troupe 6185, The Performing Arts Academy of the OCVTS)

Thespian Playworks staged readings: The Okay Kids; Atlas’s Equal

Main stage event: Disney’s The Little Mermaid (Troupe 4982, Bradford High School, Kenosha, Wisconsin), Unexpected Tenderness (Troupe 1887, Riverton High School, Riverton, Wyoming)

Freestyle Theatre: Group: the Musical (Texas Thespians, Troupe 7372, Cypress Ranch High School), A Gleeful Variety from Saipan (Western Pacific Island Thespians, Troupe 5374, Marianas High School)

Generations Gala dance

WORKSHOPS:

Acting: Accent fun: Irish; Advanced Rasaboxes; Cell-ebrate acting; Creating believable stage villains; Enticing, expressive ensemble experiences; Finding the event of the scene; Impulses through Viewpoints; The perfect monologue; Physicality and the imagination; Sing your act off; Shhhhhh! Silence is golden; Sketch comedy from beginning to…; Unmasking the heart of creativity; Your (naked) body as a costume; Your (naked) body as a costume

Auditions: Colleges & Careers: Stage to screen

Dance: Broadway-style tap; Contemporary jazz

Directing & Dramaturgy:

Dramatic Writing: Let’s write; Thespian Musicalworks: Write a musical

General Theatre/Special Topics: Hello! Your baby; Theatre teacher superhero action figure game; What was my adjudicator thining

Musical Theatre & Voice: Acting a song

Stage Combat: Characters in conflict; Kill or be killed; Selliing the fight

Teachers Only:

Another amazing day...

Student leadership program: New ITO elected

Main stage event: National IEs Showcase and Awards Presentation

Chapter Select showcase: Sganarelle (North Carolina Thespians, Troupe 2237, Asheville High School), Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales (West Virginia Thespians, Troupe 7549, Bridgeport High School)

Thespian Playworks staged readings: Escalator, It’s Gonna Rain

EdTA Town Hall Meeting 

Freestyle Theatre: Love of Three Oranges (Texas Thespians, Troupe 5191, Alice High School)

Chapter Select Showcase: Shades (Oregon Thespians, Troupe 7125, Glencoe High School), How to Succeed in High School (Western Pacific Islands Thespians, Troupe 5374, Marianas High School), Elephant’s Graveyard (Arkansas Thespians, Troupe 6789, Clarksville High School)

Main stage event: The Addams Family (Troupe 127, Spring Woods High School, Houston, TX)

Main stage event: Hello! My baby (Troupe 7929, Indian Trail High School and Academy, Kenosha, Wisconsin)

Freestyle theatre: Magic Theatre II (Pennsylania Thespians, Troupe 830, Pennsbury High School), The Spoon River Project (Pennsylvania Thespians, Troupe 5028, Council Rock High School North)

Staged reading: The Exile and the Onion Girl

Drom Night dance: What is drom? Anyone? Anyone?

Improvisational Theatre Ensemble Performance

WORKSHOPS:

Acting: Accent fun: Australian; Acting for singers; Acting on camera; Advanced scene study; A.P. Improv; Character exploration; Commedia dell’arte;Creating believable stage villains; Creation through Viewpoints; From canvas to stage; Improv techniques for singing actors; Improv theatre game intensive; Impulses through Viewpoints; Intro to Droznin method; I’ve got the part…now what?; Libby Appel mask characterization; Physical theatre workshop; Physicality and the imagination; Rasaboxes overview; Shakespeare monologue; Shhhhhh! Silence is golden; Unmasking the heart of creativity; Voiceovers 101; You don’t need a mic; Your body, your voice, and improve;

Auditions: Auditioning for musical theatre programs; Broadway or bust; Getting the most out of your college musical theatre audition; Make the most of your auditions; Musical theatre audition technique;

Colleges & Careers: B.A.? B.F.A.? OMG!; How to choose the college program; I want to be an actor, not a waiter; Making the leap from stage to film career; Stage to screen; #stagemanagersgetjobs

Dance: Broadway-style tap; Hip-hop choreography; Step up your musical dance skills

Directing & Dramaturgy: Director’s toolbox

Dramatic Writing: The creativity game; Monologue this; Playwriting 1; Writers as warriors; Writing a three-minute play; Writing the musical libretto

General Theatre/Special Topics: Alumni involvement; Children’s theatre; Community service: TOTS-EAT; Fast, focused theatre arts management; First Aid and CPR for the theatre; Great promotion ideas; LGBT discussion; Managing, communicating, and selling; National advocacy, plain and simple; New resources for musical theatre; Script analysis; Six ways to hit your mark; Stand-up comedy and why we laugh

Musical Theatre & Voice: Broadway pop/rock workshop; You better sing

Stage Combat: We all fall down;

Teachers Only: Best practices for theatre education; Director’s workshop: Coaching; Google for educators; The pedagogy of enthusiasm

Technical Theatre: Advanced special effects; Audio design 101; Costume coordination fundamentals; Elements of color: LEDs…what exactly are they; Makeup mysteries revealed; No-sew T-shirt redo; Scenic painting for the non-artist; Special-effects makeup; Working magic with cardboard and masking tape

Whew!! Today was awesome!

Early in the AM. Student leadership program AND PDIs for theatre educators...

Chapter Select showcase: The Other Room (Missouri Thespians, Troupe 2787, St. Francis Borgia Regional High School), Dear Finder (Louisiana Thespians, Troupe 1510, Mandeville High School)

Festival’s Got Talent – 5 minutes to wow the crowd

College & Thespian Scholarship auditions!!!

National IEs Showcase callbacks

Chapter Select showcase: Cosi (Minnesota Thespians, Troupe 7789, Chanhassen High School)

Main stage event: Big Fish (Troupe 694, McLean High School, McLean, VA)

Main stage event: The Twilight of the Golds (Troupe 5008, Harry S Truman High School, Levittown, PA)

Chapter Select showcase: Bright. Apple. Crush. (Alabama Thespians, Troupe 4590, Randolph High School), A Gathering of Angels: Selections from Naked Angels Issues Projects (Rhode Island Thespians, Troupe 1995, Cumberland High School)

Freestyle Theatre: Too Much Light…17 Plays in 30 Minutes (Colorado Thespians, Troupe 5869, Denver, CO), Plant (Kansas Thespians, Troupe 639, Salina High School Central), For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls (Missouri Thespians, Troupe 3482, Branson High School)

Late Night: Black and Red formal, Improv challenge, stand-up comedy by Jason Thomas Mayfield

WORKSHOPS:

Acting: Accent fun: British; Advanced scene study; Advanced Rasaboxes; The Bard is not so bad; Character exploration; Commedia dell’arte; Creation through Viewpoints Demystifying Shakespeare’s verse; I got the part…now what; Improv a musical; Improv theatre game intensive; Impulses through Viewpoints; Narrative improve; Libby Appel mask characterization; Physical theatre workshop; Puppetry manipulation 101; Rasaboxes overview; Sketch comedy from beginning to…; Theatre of illusion; Unmasking the heart of creativity; Voiceovers 101; We only have a hat; You don’t need a mic; Your body, your voice, and improv

Auditions: Getting the most out of your musical theatre audition; Make the most of your auditions

Colleges & Careers: Maximizing the college experience; Stage to screen

Dance: Advanced musical theatre dance; Broadway musical experience; Fun with court dancing; Hip-hop choreography; Musical theatre dance; Step up your musical dance skills; Swing dance; You better dance

Directing & Dramaturgy: But what I really want to do is direct; The director’s prep; Director’s toolbox

Dramatic Writing: The creativity game; Let’s write; Playwriting 2; Putting flesh on the headlines; Thespian Playworks: Atlas’ Equal rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: The Escalator rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: The Exile and the Onion Girl rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: It’s Gonna Rain rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: The Okay Kids rehearsal

General Theatre/Special Topics: Alumni involvement; Beyond the boos and hisses; Big Fish, Memphis, Ghost, Saturday Night Fever…they’re yours to stage; Fast, focused theatre arts management; First Aid and CPR for the theatre; Hands-on with Realtime Music Solutions; Make a difference; Managing, communicating, and selling; National advocacy, plain and simple; Script analysis; Six ways to hit your mark; Stand-up comedy and why we laugh; Theatre as a social voice; Troupe fundraising 101; What was my adjudicator thinking; Yoga for the creative artist

Musical Theatre & Voice: How to sing a comic song; Thespian Musicalworks: Group rehearsal

Stage Combat: Single sword;

Teachers Only: Acting on camera; Best practices for theatre education; Google for educators; The pedagogy of enthusiasm; Setting the stage for student-written monologues

Technical Theatre: Advanced audio design; Audio GPS; Costume coordination fundamentals; Keeping your hair on; LEDs…what exactly are they; Oh, the things you can do with a bald cap; Pixels, pixels, pixels; Scenic painting for the non-artist; Special-effects spectacular; Stage management: feng shui; Thrift shop chic; Working magic with cardboard and masking tape

Festival is halfway over, but everyone is making the most out of every minute here at UNL! Wednesday was packed with workshops, National IE showcase auditions, and college and Thespian scholarship auditions. ITO has been schooling Thespians on student leadership, and teachers have been participating in Professional Development Intensives so they can be at their best for their beloved Thespians! Wednesday night featured improv games and karaoke – a few of our favorite things! Not to mention show after show all day long!

Chapter Select Showcases: God of Carnage (Wyoming Thespians, Troupe 8128, Worland High School), Children of a Lesser God (Iowa Thespians, Troupe 3994, Davenport North High Shool), Show and Tell (Nebraska Thespians, Troupe 4138, Omaha Burke High School) The Boys Next Door (Troupe 1374, Catalina Foothills High School), The Overcoat (Troupe 7275, Hayden Catholic High School)

Freestyle Theatre: Apolla Ikon, Intergalactic Statesworman (Missouri Thespians, Troupe 191, Webster Groves High School), A Piece of My Heart (Alabama Thespians, Troupe 6004, Pelham High School), The Seussification of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Colorado Thespians, Troupe 5989, Monarch High School), Minnesota Moon (Minnesota Thespians, Troupe 1539, Edina High School)

Main stage events: Lost in Yonkers (Troupe 4347, Bishop Gorman High School, Las Vegas, NV), Xanadu (Troupe 6485, Pine Creek High School, Colorado Springs, CO)

Would you look at all of these amazing workshops held Wednesdayday?? Which ones did you check out?

Acting: Accent fun: British; Actor’s mind/character’s mind; Actor’s toolbox; Advanced Rasaboxes; The Bard is not so bad; Commedia dell’arte; Dialects; Finding the event of the scene; Focus and move with purpose; From canvas to stage; Improv a play; Improv foundations; Improv techniques for singing actors; Improv theatre game intensive; Libby Appel mask characterization; Making your monologue hot; Make your partner perfect; Master the cold read; Physical theatre workshop; Puppetry manipulation 101; Puppetry 101; Shakespeare made easy; Shut up and improvise; Unmasking the heart of creativity; You don’t need a mic; Your body, your voice, and improv

Auditions: Ace any theatre audition; Auditioning for musical theatre programs; Broadway mock audition master class; Getting the callback; Getting the most out of your college musical theatre audition; Musical theatre audition technique; Nailing your audition

College & Careers: I want to be an actor, not a waiter; Making the leap from stage to film career

Dance: Broadway choreography master class; Hip-hop choreography; Musical theatre dance; Swing dance; You better dance

Directing & Dramaturgy: But what I really want to do is direct; The director’s prep; Director’s toolbox

Dramatic Writing: Playwriting 2; The creativity game; Putting flesh on the headlines; Thespian Playworks: Atlas’ Equal rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: The Escalator rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: The Exile and the Onion Girl rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: The Okay Kids rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: It’s Gonna Rain rehearsal; Writing a three-minute play

General Theatre/Special Topics: Alumni involvement; Beyond the boos and hisses; Big Fish, Memphis, Ghost Saturday Night Fever,…they’re yours to stage; First Aid and CPR for the theatre; Hands-on with Realtime Music Solutions; Make a difference; Meet the 2015-16 ITO candidates; New resources for musical theatre; Running on empty; Script analysis; Yoga for the creative artist

Musical Theatre & Voice: Broadway pop/rock workshop;  You better sing

Stage Combat: Characters in conflict

Teachers Only: The pedagogy of enthusiasm; Puppetry playshop; Set the stage for student-written monologues

After an early rise-and-shine, students kicked off a busy Day 2 of Festival with auditions and workshops galore! College auditions continued and auditions for The Exile and the Onion Girl were held as well as National IE Showcase auditions. Today was also the day for Thespian Playworks auditions, another opportunity to bring a fellow Thespian’s work to life on stage. The workshop choices today were tough to pick from. Don’t you wish you could take them all? Exhibitors were available for information, and tours of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film took Thespians through the host school’s theatre shops and facilities. The Tech Challenge threw students into the world of competitive platform building. It’s not quite an Olympic sport yet, but if it were then we’d have some tough contestants!

Today’s Main stage performances included White Christmas (Troupe 6547, Lincoln Southwest High School, Lincoln, NE) and The 39 Steps (Troupe 4088, Susquehannock High School, Glen Rock, PA), and the Chapter select showcase featured Art (Yasmina Reza, Colorado Thespians, Troupe 7206, Rock Canyon High School) and Pyramus and Thisbe (Griffin Puppet Players, California Thespians, Troupe 7944, Los Alamitos High School)

The fun continued after dark with an Improv Challenge, stand-up comedy, and The Curtain Call Ball dance! These Thespians will sleep well tonight after such a jam-packed day of theatre and good times.

Today’s workshops:

Acting: Acting on camera; Focus and move with purpose; Improv foundations; Improv theatre game intensive; Puppetry 101; Rasaboxes overview; Actor’s toolbox; Commedia dell’arte; Improv a musical; Impulses through Viewpoints; Master the cold read; Physical theatre workshop; Theatre of illusion; We only have a hat; Acting for singers; The perfect monologue

Auditions: Broadway or bust; Ace any theatre audition; Audition monologues; Audition intensive

Colleges & Careers: Broadway 101; #stagemanagersgetjobs

Dance: Broadway choreography master class; Musical theatre dance; Broadway musical experience; Contemporary jazz; Hip-hop choreography

Directing & Dramaturgy: Read, write, speak; More dramaturgy; Directing Shakespeare

Dramatic Writing: The creativity game; Let’s write; Monologue this; Thespian Playworks: The Escalator rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: It’s Gonna Rain rehearsal; Writers as warriors; Playwriting 1; Thespian Playworks: The Exile and the Onion Girl rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: Atlas’ Equal rehearsal; Thespian Playworks: The Okay Kids rehearsal

General Theatre/Special Topics: Alumni involvement; Can we get a grant; Collaborating for live-event production; Hollywood to Broadway; Meet the 2015-16 ITO Candidates; Physical, mental, and vocal health; What was my adjudicator thinking; Script analysis

Musical Theatre & Voice: Acting a song; How to sing a comic song

Stage Combat: Selling the fight

Teachers Only: Puppetry workshop

Technical Theatre: Aging made easy; Painting techniques; Good, fast, and cheap; Makeup mysteries revealed

After getting registered and settled into their dorms, Thespians got right to work making the most of every moment at Festival. Many upperclassmen took advantage of the college auditions process while dozens of Thespians participated in Musicalworks auditions, hoping for a shot at bringing to life a new piece of theatre composed by one of their peers. Thespians also had some great workshops to choose from. And Festival was officially up and running with the opening of The Music of Menken: Audrey, Ariel, Aladdin…and Alan: An Evening with Alan Menken, featuring an International Thespian cast and crew and Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (Troupe 66, Paola High School, Paola, KS).

Today’s workshops:

Acting: Advanced scene study; Commedia dell’arte; Focus and move with purpose; From canvas to stage; Puppetry 101; and Scene study

Auditions: Audition intensive; Broadway mock audition master class

Colleges & Careers: How to choose the college program

Dance: Broadway style tap; Hip-hop choreography

Directing & Dramaturgy: Read, write, speak

General Theatre/Special Topics: Tips on an exceptional I.E.; What was my adjudicator thinking

Musical Theatre & Voice: Acting a song