This past weekend, the ITO made the trek from coast to coast and everywhere in between to reunite in New York City!
My journey started early on a Friday morning at Union Station in DC, embarking on the four hour train ride to New York City’s Penn Station. Upon arrival I stepped out of the train station to be greeted by horns honking, people yelling, and the perpetual smell of garbage. Ah how I love this city! I rushed over to the hotel where I had the most beautiful reunion with Elam, Estee, and Tyler in the lobby of our hotel. We sat down and caught up and anxiously awaited the arrival of the rest of our board.
Our next arrival was the fabulous Scott Wilson (Swilz) followed shortly by Kimberly Staples (Staples) and the lovely Caroline Caden. We sat and laughed together and then the wonderful Diane Carr arrived. We piled all our luggage in one room and then tried on our wonderful new ITO sashes.
We left the hotel and headed to the Drama Book Store. Here we had an amazing moment that some of you may have seen on our snapchat story (@ITOOfficial) of finding published copies for sale of past Thespian Playworks additions! What an awesome find!
Our next stop was the American Theatre Wing. Here we met with the amazing Megan Kolb and Rachel Schwartz. They shared wonderful stories with us about their journeys in theatre and their experiences and lovers of art. Not to mention they let us hold a real Tony! Thank you so much to ATW for having us over, make sure to check out their website (americantheatrewing.org) to learn more about the incredible work they do.
From here, we headed over to the Playbill office. We had a great discussion with Sarah Jane Arnegger about Playbill’s work in arts education and her amazing initiatives in the field. After talking to her, and the wonderful Tyler Mount and Felicia Fitzpatrick, we left Playbill (check out playbill.org) and headed out to dinner.
On Friday night we had the incredible opportunity of watching Come From Away! This show was BEAUTIFUL! We cried and laughed and then got a backstage tour with the phenomenally talented Chad Kimball and Q Smith.
Such an amazing first day!
Day two started with a visit to the gorgeous Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) office where we worked on planning our trips for this year. We are so excited to hit the road and get this year started! Thank you again to TRW for letting us use your amazing facility, look at theatricalrights.com to see what they are up to!
Saturday night we ventured out to a different genre of theatre and saw 1984. Even though it was terrifying (Caroline couldn’t stop screaming while grabbing onto me!) we had an thrilling time experiencing such powerful theatre. Bravo to that amazing cast and crew!
Sunday morning began with the much anticipated BCEFA Flea Market! We woke up and headed down to our table where we began selling all types of exciting donations. We had everything from signed jazz shoes to old cook books! And we raised over $3000 selling them, what a day! We were also able to work with BCEFA to pledge young theatre artists to the wonderful cause of BCEFA. Thank you Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids for a terrific day! Visit broadwaycares.org to learn more about their amazing work.
We wrapped up our trip with a visit to the legendary 54 Below for the Broadway Back to School event. Here we say amazing performers such as Hunter Bell, Chad Kimball, Q Smith, Ryan Haddad, Marla Louissaint, Lesli Margherita, John Mcginty, Carla Stickler, Ana Villafane, and MORE!
As we walked back to our hotel we knew we weren’t ready for this trip to end. This was such an amazing experience and we are so thankful to have this opportunity. Tuesday morning and our dreaded departure came faster than any of us had hoped. We had an early morning and all arrived home safely so incredibly thankful for the experiences we had as well as excited for the upcoming year.
Feel free to reach out to your ITO and contact us on @internationalthespianofficers for Instagram, @ITOOfficial on Snapchat, The International Thespian Officers on Facebook, @ITOChair on Twitter, and feel free to contact me at sseth@schooltheatre.org at any time.
We are so excited to serve you.