This past weekend I had the honor of attending Rhode Island's state event, a day filled with fun, learning, self-expression, and connecting! Actors and techies alike gathered from all over the state to share their experiences and learn from professionals who've offered their expertise! The day started out with Mr. Sylvia addressing the attendees and introducing the student leaders who helped put the amazing event together!
The students then grouped up, playing ice-breaker games and getting familiar with the Thespians they'd be spending the day with! From there they broke off to go to their workshop sessions. The workshops they had to choose from were fun, informative, and engaging! You could see the smiles on everyone's' faces as they left each session. I had the opportunity to sit in on two of these workshops: 'The Characters of Commedia Dell'Arte' presented by Daniel Lee White and 'Theatre for Social Change' presented by Laura Goldstein. Both were active, immersive, and engaged students from start to finish. Other workshops explored the magic of make-up and the complexity (and safety) of bladed stage combat! I had a great group of student leaders attend my leadership workshop where we learned about Spider-Man and how to find connections and resources in the community.
After lunch we were given a show from an absolutely hysterical Improv group, "Bring Your Own Improv", where we got to see a bunch of students show off their own improv skills with the pros! To wrap the day up, students got up in front of everyone and shared what they learned throughout the day. Some showed off their FX make-up, a choreographed fight scene, and parts of script they wrote. It was a nice way to have everyone reflect on the day and look forward to returning the nest year. Finally, everyone helped clean up the space we used, and headed home, filled with a renewed sense of wonder and appreciation for theatre. It was certainly a successful day, and it has me even more excited for what the rest of the festival year has in store!
If you want to follow all of the ITO's thespi-antics follow us with @internationalthespianofficers on Instagram, @ITOOfficial on Snapchat, and The International Thespian Officers on Facebook. If you'd like to contact me specifically, you can find me on Twitter as @ITORyanP or shoot me an email at rpangracs@schooltheatre.org. I am so excited to meet as many of you wonderful thespians as I can this year, and I hope you are all counting down the days until ITF like I am (and that's 243 days)! See ya soon!