YORK, PA – Thespians flocked to Central York High School from all across the state for Pennsylvania’s Annual State Thespian Conference on December 5th. All thirty-eight delegates from North Penn looked forward to a weekend of unique shows and theatrical growth through special performance opportunities and workshops. After wandering through the halls of Central York and having dinner, the thespians settled into the holiday decorated auditorium for the first main stage production of the conference.
The show was Council Rock North’s Our Town, which provided a different interpretation of the show North Penn thespians knew inside and out from their own involvement in it. Next to perform a main stage was Pennridge Middle School with Beauty and the Beast, Jr. On Friday night, Parkland High School presented the random and hilarious Imaginary Invalid and the last main stage of the conference was Ridley High School’s beautifully costumed Shrek. The variety of content in each production kept the audience engaged during every show.
In between main stages were a plethora of activities, including shorter one acts and showcases. Notable one act shows were the hilarious Boy Meets Girl, performed by Spring Grove High School, and the haunting Five Kinds of Silence, performed by Harry S. Truman High School. On Saturday, all the showcases – one song or scene from a show – performed, including North Penn’s student choreographed and directed production number to “Pop!” from The Wedding Singer.
Certain students chose to take on another performance option at States that required a great deal of preparation – an Individual Event, or IE. After performing to a panel of three adjudicators, senior Kuhoo Verma and junior Juliette Shipp were chosen to bring their IEs to the International Festival in Nebraska this summer.
“North Penn students in particular come into the competition as some of the most prepared students as we work on our audition pieces for many weeks with our two directors, Andrea Roney and Debra Buckner. The IE process is also facilitated by the incredible support and feedback that we get from the North Penn Thespians, even if they happen to be competing against us,” says Verma of the work she and the other ambitious students put into their IEs leading up to the conference.
The conference was not without technical and backstage opportunities. The tech challenge calls for a knowledge of many different aspects of technical theater, including knot-tying, a cable relay, light focusing, quick changing, and a mystery event which was a prop strike and set-up this year.
Senior Courtney Jirsa, captain for one of North Penn’s tech teams, commented that “this year, my favorite part [of States] was actually the announcing of the winners because North Penn received its first Tech Challenge Award!”
Other events included a costume challenge, in which five students created a costume in less than an hour out of prepared supplies to parade in front of all the delegates. In the makeup challenge, senior Sarah Wittman and sophomore Jamie Devine applied makeup to sophomore Mary Beth Bloomer to transform her into Rafiki from The Lion King.
Students participated in many workshops as well to learn more about performance or technical aspects of theater. North Penn students selected to take workshops focused on The Creative Mind, Mixing the Musical, Movement for the Actor, and Production Numbers. Junior Melissa Fuhr commented that the workshops “really brought out the energy in everyone.”
Junior Jackson Simpson was chosen to run for Pennsylvania State Board, a group of nine students who plan the State Conference, and was elected into the board by representatives from many Thespian Troupes at closing ceremonies. After going through the application process and shadowing current State Board members throughout the conference, Jackson was elated to be elected onto the board: “I’m eager to give back to a community that means so much to me. The Conference is a special event for a lot of people, so getting to work on it behind the scenes is not something I take lightly.”
On top of all the activities and performances, North Penn thespians were busy at work manning the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS booth and selling red ribbons and wristbands. Auction items included signed posters from Mamma Mia! and Mary Poppins, a signed Wicked playbill, a Broadway season iPhone case, and a Broadway themed snow globe. This year, thespians raised about $2000 to benefit the worthy cause.
“Since thespians from across the state don’t have access to much of the merchandise, they are very excited about buying theatre merchandise from favorite shows and Broadway seasons,” said BC/EFA co-coordinator Taryn Murphy.
The theatre-packed weekend came to a close late Saturday night to the disappointment of many delegates, but the memories and friendships made will last for a long while.
