Immediately after leaving LaGuardia airport, I knew I was not in Kansas anymore. New York City has a certain atmosphere to it; it's energetic and lively. These feeling were only supplemented by the incredible experiences the ITO had while we were taking on the big city! Never have I seen so many opportunities in one place, for theatre and beyond. It's truly city of passion and hard work, and let me tell ya, the ITO certainly took advantage of that!
After all the ITO, Scott Wilson, and Diane Carr were reunited, we made our way to the American Theatre Wing where we learned all about their beginnings and how they grew into such an amazing organization that helps with so much throughout the theatre world. Plus, we all got to hold a real Tony award (I was definitely in shock)! Meeting the incredible staff at the ATW gave us some insight on some of the other aspects of theatre besides performance and technical. Later that night, some of us went to go see Waitress, followed by some incredible cheesecake!
Saturday morning we headed over to the Theatre Rights Worldwide office space (HUGE shout-out to the incredible Jim Hoare) to get down to business! With the help of the ever-wonderful Doug Berlon and Kimberly Staples, we figured out which ITO would be attending which festivals throughout the year, and let me just say I am very happy with my states, can't wait to see ya! Later, we hopped back on the streets and split up, some of us going to see The Color Purple, and the others An American in Paris. The Color Purple was my first ever Broadway experience and it was A M A Z I N G!
Sunday was when the real fun began! Bright-eyed and busy-tailed, long before the sun was up, we went down to Shubert Alley and helped with set up for the annual Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids Flea Market (#broadwayflea)!! Along the way we met up with some amazing and dedicated STO from New York and New Jersey who helped us run the ITS table. Throughout the day we sold merchandise, scoured through thousands of people to find thespian alumni (heard some incredible stories from a few of them), and helped out the BC/EFA social team by running the Selfie Stage! Every where I looked I saw 18th century revolutionaries, members of an elementary school rock band, and most of all, people with a passion for theatre! After the flea market, we got a backstage peak of the set for Matilda and it was magical! We ended the day by exploring the city and shopping till we dropped (almost literally).
After a good night's rest, we embarked on our last full day in the Big Apple! We had the amazing opportunity of meeting the staff of Tams-Witmark, who've become the ITO's first ever sponsor! It's always important to ensure the people who support you know how much you appreciate them, and boy do we appreciate Tams-Witmark!! We then attended the ITS sponsored event, Broadway Back to School, where we had the chance to see a whole bunch of big names on Broadway tell us about their experiences with high school theatre, and of course they sang a few songs for us! We got to see small our world actually is, and yet how big of a part theatre plays in it. The next morning we all parted ways until February, but we all shared an experience we won't soon forget!
So we said good-bye New York, but I'll be saying hello to Rhode Island quite soon for their state festival! If you want to follow all of the ITO's thespi-antics follow us with @internationalthespianofficers on Instagram, @ITOOfficial on Snapchat, and The International Thespian Officers on Facebook. If you'd like to contact me specifically, you can find me on Twitter as @ITORyanP or shoot me an email at rpangracs@schooltheatre.org. I am so excited to meet as many of you wonderful thespians as I can this year, and I hope you are all counting down the days until ITF like I am (and that's 257 days)! See ya soon!