This past weekend, the ITO visited the greatest city in the world for four days, and with each day came new adventures, sights, and sounds (and tastes, of course!) Arriving Friday morning, I met up with our new Vice Chair, Shaila Seth, in Penn Station, and we soon found the rest of our ITO board, along with the amazing Diane Carr and Scott Wilson, to head to the American Theatre Wing. We had the privilege of meeting with some of the amazing staff, who showed us upcoming ATW projects, gave us background on their organization, and even let us hold a real tony award (which the ITO were beyond excited about.) After a huge thank you to them for setting up such a great meeting, we went back into the bustle of Times Square and got settled in our hotel before catching Waitress that evening! The production was a lot of fun, and for a few of our board members it was their first time seeing a Broadway show.
Saturday morning we were up early and ready to go, joined by the extraordinary Kimberly Staples and Doug Berlon, and headed to the Theatrical Rights Worldwide office space in Manhattan, where the ITO met with Jim Hoare. Jim was so generous to provide us with a beautiful meeting space for the entire day, where the ITO decided their state conference assignments for the year and presented their 2016-2017 Leadership Workshops to the adult staff and volunteers. Later that day we split up, a few of us going to see The Color Purple while a few went to American in Paris, and we concluded that night both excited and nervous about the next day…
Our alarms went off at 5:30am and we were ready to go for the big day, the Broadway Flea Market! All six ITO made it, dressed and ready to set up, to Shubert Alley by 6:30am, where we were greeted by the wonderful NY and NJ STOs (both of whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past,) as well as their adult liaisons, Mark Drum and Jason Wylie. A huge thank you to NY nd NJ Thespians for volunteering at this event! Once assigned our table, the ITO and STOs set straight to work unloading the crazy merchandise provided to us this year. We also had the privilege of working the Selfie Stage, where anyone could come up and take a picture of themselves at the event framed by a fun prop. This year, the ITO raised over $2,800 for BC/EFA! We wrapped up work before 5:00pm and headed back to our hotel, exhausted and extremely fulfilled.
Our last day in New York was no less exciting than the other three. After a great breakfast and a few meetings, we headed to the Tams-Witmark Music Library, where we met with much of their staff (as well as EdTA staff members) to talk about their exciting sponsorship of the ITO this year! It was such a pleasure working with and meeting them all, and we can’t wait to see where this relationship goes from here. Monday concluded with the ITO facilitating the Broadway Back to School event at Feinstein’s 54 Below, an amazing evening filled with Broadway performers, wonderful hosts (Hunter Bell and Susan Blackwell,) and of course the celebration of Thespians and educational theatre! We were thrilled to attend and speak at the event, and we hope ITO are invited back to this new, annual tradition for years to come.
Tuesday morning our time came to an end and the ITO went their separate ways, not to see eachother again until February. We had a blast in NYC and are so excited for conference season! If you want to stay connected with all of our photos, videos, and fun stories from our trips, feel free to follow us @internationalthespianofficers on Instagram, @ITOOfficial on Snapchat, The International Thespian Officers on Facebook, @ITOChair on Twitter, and always feel free to email me at galt@schooltheatre.org with any questions or comments. I can’t wait for this year, we can’t wait to start visiting all of your states! Truly, how lucky are we to be alive right now...
