Maryland's Conference last week was SUPER AMAZING!
From one acts to trash costume contests I would say that this conference was far from trashy. (Hahaha puns.)
Nevertheless I should say that as soon as Ben ochsner and I stepped into Tuscarora High School, we were both welcomed with opened arms by the STO and the adult board members.
Just look at these lovely STOs from my leadership workshop!
Throughout the festival, there was one act after one act after one act! Shows ranging from 'dentity Crisis to Women and War, all of the schools got a chance to show each other the amazing talents they had to offer. Not only were the schools performing one acts just to showcase their talents but they were also adjudicated by three judges, one of them including my great friend Ben Ochsner! After each of the performances the adjudicators would voice some of their observations for the show. I felt that it was really helpful for everyone to hear this feed back because it could also help some of the other schools for future performances. By the end of the festival the adjudicators got together and chose a show that would be performed as a chapter select at the International Thespian Festival! The show that got selected to perform was Sure Thing, and might I say it was a performance worth watching. This is a show normally performed by just two actors who play off different ways that a date would go, but instead there were multiple Bills and Bettys each of them giving a different flavor for each of the possible scenarios. It was a performance that I would love to watch over and over again and I would highly recommend that anybody going to ITF should watch!
Other than one acts, there were also some super fun group activities that took place like say a TRASH COSTUME CONTEST! Who wouldn't want to participate in that? You literally take recyclable items and use your creativity to transform them into anything you want. It's like being a kid again while also saving the planet! Heck, I still dabble in minor trash costuming on my spare time, it's fun!. I was especially surprised because i'm pretty sure that these students had to make these costumes in only a few minutes! And don't get me wrong they were some pretty awesome costumes! Check a few of them out:
I think you can somewhat tell who one this round!
The night of the first festival there was of course a dance! However, this dance was quite different than some of the dances that I've been to at festivals. Rather than playing the latest hits that are always on the radio stations, the music that played was from our favorite musicals! I thought that that was such a great idea because everyone was having a great time! On one side of the room you could see a circle of people belting their highest notes from Wicked at the top of their lungs while on the other side of the room there were groups of kids showing of their choreography from when they did Footloose at their school. The dance was very unique and I definitely had a great time.
On the second day of festival, right before festival's closing there were Tech Olympics! There challenges about lighting, prop changes, costume changes and even a diva run where the competitors had to run around doing many techie-like tasks while carrying around a bottle of water so that they could quench their diva's thirsts after they were done with their tasks.
It was also really fun to see all of the troupe's chants they would scream to support their fellow thespians whilst performing their tasks! Here's one of the schools from Maryland supporting their team!
I made many great friends at Maryland and enjoyed every moment that I spent whilst I was there! And next month I get to see what North Carolina has to share and I can't wait!!