This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending my fourth and final Pennsylvania State Conference! I arrived on Wednesday with my troupe director, Marlene Thornton, where both the adult and student state boards began work on preparations for the next day. After a long night, we were ready for the buses to arrive on Thursday, and registration opened the next day at noon. The first day of any conference is always filled with bustle and chaos, people reuniting with friends after months apart, nervous newcomers tentatively searching for a bathroom after three-hour bus rides from across the state. I had the pleasure of meeting up with and working alongside EdTA rep Scott Wilson all weekend! The conference opened with a mainstage production of Almost Maine, and afterwards, the STOs presented their opening ceremonies celebration, complete with a starry backdrop modeled after the theme, “One Small Star, One Great Galaxy.” The evening came to a close with a production of Next to Normal that had the audience in tears and on their feet applauding. After karaoke and a loud, crazy dance, the excited PA Thespians returned to their hotel rooms, anxious for the rest of the weekend.
Friday opened with a hilarious production of Boeing, Boeing, along with simultaneous scholarship auditions and tech IEs. Afterwards, one-acts began, and for the next several hours schools rotated in and out of the mainstage and black box theaters (including my own school, with a production of Alice in Wonderland.) Around midday, the STO Candidates strutted their stuff onstage modeling items from the boutique, which were for sale all weekend long, and the over 1,000 attendees had an opportunity to interact with the nine new candidates. The STO candidates also helped run the Minute to Give It fundraiser, which PA Thespians raised over $1250 for this year! Once the fashion show and the lunch proceeding it ended, students broke out into workshop sessions, where the first session of the STO/ITO Leadership Workshop commenced. I taught a session of my “Roll With It” Leadership Workshop to over sixty kids, which went straight into a NAPS session afterwards. I had some of the most energetic and willing participants in those workshops, and it was great to reconnect with people who had attended last year and came back for more! The evening came to a quick close, as many of the students were exhausted and in need of preparing for the final day ahead.
Bright and early on Saturday morning, several hundred students came back to Central York High School in their dress blacks, ready for IEs and tech challenge, which ran for over four hours that morning. The midday IE showcase had students thrilled about their performances, followed by the Makeup and Hat challenge where over one hundred students participated in making up their models to the theme “Reach for the Stars.” In the final workshop session that day, the STO candidates participated in the final component of their selection process, and students from the dozen troupes attending voted on their board for the next year. The evening wrapped up with a mainstage production of Peter and the Starcatcher, an emotional closing ceremony following the show. Students with superior IEs were announced, as well as several thousand dollars in performance scholarships, all-star cast members from the one-acts and mainstages, and the new STO board. As “A Star is Born” played, Thespians bid each other a tearful goodbye, some of them leaving for the last time, others invigorated and inspired to come back the next year.
My second #pathesfest as an STO and ITO, and my fourth state festival as a Thespian, came to a close this weekend. I am so honored to have had the opportunity to serve Pennsylvania. One last huge thank you to the chapter director Mark Zortman, the STO coordinators Marlene Thornton and Jill Campbell, and all those who were a part of making such a great conference this weekend. Make sure to stay connected with the different state conferences the ITO are attending this year by following us on all of our social media (@internationalthespianofficers on Instagram, @ITOOfficial on Snapchat, The International Thespian Officers on Facebook, @ITOChair on Twitter)!