On the weekend of March 11, I had a fabulous time attending Nevada Thespian Festival 2016 in glamorous Las Vegas, NV! I arrived on the Wednesday morning before festival and met up immediately with the Nevada adult board and the amazingly dedicated and hardworking STOs. We spent the day preparing for the kickoff of festival, which was scheduled for the next afternoon with the arrival of all of the Thespian troupes.
The next morning we met bright and early back at Del Sol Academy of the Performing Arts, where the conference was taking place, to do some last minute prep before troupes began arriving in the mid-afternoon. Then we all gathered in the theatre for opening ceremonies and saw an awesome Opening Number with some fantastic performances by talented Nevada Thespians; the show started out with a fully staged performance of "We've Got Magic to Do" from Pippin, which aptly matched the festival theme: Share Your Magic! Here's a shot of the performance:
And a behind-the-scenes look at rehearsal:
On Friday I got to teach my leadership and N.A.P.S. workshops to some enthusiastic thespians. I am always so inspired by the students I meet and the stories they share in my workshops; student leadership and advocacy works!
Saturday we closed out festival with closing ceremonies, where we saw even more amazing performances. The Thespians I had the pleasure of watching grace the stage in Vegas are sure to be trotting the stageboards on the Great White Way not too long from now! NV Thespians also handed out some hard-earned awards, and expressed well-deserved thanks to troupe directors and state board members who helped make the event a success. Here's a picture I snapped with the incoming and outgoing STOs!
And a shot of me and my new friend and NV STO Briley, who graciously shared her home with me over the weekend:
Thanks again to the amazing NV Thespians team, especially Chapter Directors Angela Dashner and Krysta Phenix and the rest of the adult board, and the phenomenal State Thespian Officers, of course! Thanks as well to EdTA rep Jennifer Forrest-James, Ben Ochsner, and Lauren Carr for serving with me throughout the weekend. Congrats to all on an amazing festival, and I can't wait for some Nevada Thespians to join us this summer in Lincoln to share their magic with us again...