The International Thespian Officers ended their year of travel to state conferences just one month ago, at the New York State Thespian Festival. I had the lucky honor of going down for the day event and attending a conference that finished my year as Vice Chair right where I started it, during the Broadway Flea Market back in September—in New York City.
I headed down to the city early on a Saturday morning and met up with Mark Drum, the STO liaison, in Pennsylvania Station, where he explained all of their conference festivities for that day before arriving at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts. The gorgeous AADA building would be the NY Thespians’ home for the day, as they flew up and down six flights of stairs attending different workshops and performing IEs. The theme was “Haunted Theatre,” and the NY STOs had done an awesome job of incorporating this through their ghost selfie challenge and fun decorations! I kicked off the opening with the other NY STOs and Jason Daunter, who I had the pleasure of working with again! Shortly afterwards, Thespians dispersed to their first set of workshop activities, and I hosted my last Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Unafraid workshop session for the 2015-2016 year! The Thespians I had the pleasure of working with during that workshop came together to create their own definition of a confident leader, and I was so thrilled by their enthusiasm throughout the entire day.
I spent much of the rest of my time working throughout the conference, whether that was helping out at the raucous tech challenge event, interviewing potential STO candidates, or just talking to conference attendees about their experience. The event concluded with an awards ceremony where the new STOs and all award-winners were recognized, and I was able to help out the STOs with running this through as well. Before we knew it, the day had come to a close.
The New York State Conference was so inspiring to me for many reasons. Of course it was filled with fun and excitement, but all of the people there were very close with one another, despite meeting for the first time that day. I was so happy to work with such a kind, hardworking community, and I hope to attend again next year. For now, the 2015-2016 ITOs will be signing off from State Conferences, sad to have none left to attend but absolutely pumped about the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska, coming up in just a few weeks. We hope to see you all there—get ready to Act, Share, and Repeat!