By: STO Tyler Viator, Clear Falls High School, Troupe 7648
Hey Texas Thespians! I bet you're wondering what to do with all of those ribbons you received? Well here are a few ideas for you to take into consideration!
Of course, you creative types will come up with many more ways to display your ribbons! What is most important is to have fun and enjoy festival! See you November 7th, Your 2020 Texas State Thespian Officers
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By: STO Annie Bailey, Belton High School, Troupe 3491
So you’ve been mailed a duck. Now what? Many people have been wondering what the fate of their ducks would be, as they are an integral part of our Festival. Fear not; you’ll be receiving a trusty companion with your registration materials. Now, most years, our ducks are in search of their fellow feathered soulmate, but this year they have a unique opportunity to step out of the Gaylord and really see the sights. Of course, Dear Reader, because you're the one with working thumbs, it will be your job to document this new experience. “Oh,” but you ask, “where do they begin? What all can a little duck do in the great state of Texas (or the equally lovely Kansas and Oklahoma)?" Excellent question. To help you begin your journalism journey we have provided you with 4 prompts/challenges to make sure your duck gets a fun, fulfilling trip! 1st Saturday: The IntroDUCKtion: Give your duck a backstory! Really get to know them; you’ll be spending quite a while together. After that, create something to introduce them to everyone and get creative! Perhaps a Tiktok, a Beauty Pageant style runway video, or make a stop motion; it's up to you! Just get ready to show off your creativity and duck-based versatility. Be sure to tag your post. #TTSFDuckdiaries 2nd Saturday: Mallard Heads Town-ward: Now that your duck is fully settled, it's time for them to do some of that steppin’ out we discussed. Take your mallard and head town-ward! Document your duck in all the local haunts, be it the local coffee shop or the best spot on the beach. Whatever is local to you is what the duck needs to see. As you document your journey, collect photos and videos of your travels and post them with #TTSFDuckdiaries to be potentially featured at the end of Festival, and so every Thespian can see where our ducks have gone. 3rd Saturday: Taking a Quack at Theatre: Now, we all know why we’re here at this festival: it’s for a love of theatre. Why not give our duck pals the opportunity to take a quack at it themselves? For this challenge, you are to recreate a scene from one of your favorite plays, or musicals, with an entire duck cast. Of course, you don’t have to act out every scene (unless you feel the need to); rather you can simply pose them and photograph their excellent work. Now, don’t let it be misunderstood- these are meant to be the finest entirely rubber duck produced shows in the states, nay, the world! Don’t be afraid to pull out the scale unit set, tiny clothes, and dollhouse miniatures to really bring your scene to life! And of course, be sure to use the #TTSFDuckdiaries to make sure everyone can witness your artistry. 4th Saturday: All Hands on Duck: Ah, the final Saturday! It seems far away now, but we promise you the weekends will fly by, especially when they’re occupied with ducks and their adventurous whims. So for this last Super Saturday, we ask you to document your troupe and you participating in all of Festival, either together or apart. Ducks during IE filming, ducks learning Viewpoints, ducks reviewing their Design Competition materials, ducks auditioning for college. If your troupe or you have done the work, show it off! Get all hands on duck, and don’t forget the #TTSFDuckdiaries. Well Thespians, we hope we have given you a few ideas for you and your ducks during this Festival season. We’re excited to see all of the awesome and fun ways you think of to interact with your ducks. We can’t wait to see you all at the Greatest Festival on Earth! See you soon, Your 2020 Texas State Thespian Officers By: STO Lia Graham, Texas High School, Troupe 2526
First off, let’s address the elephant in the room (or screen if you must): this year is different, and in turn, our Texas Thespians State Festival will be different. As the world struggles to find something normal in a time of constant change, your State Thespian Officers, along with the adult board, have been working together to plan out a festival that will not only be the first virtual state festival held this year, but a part of history as well. The other Texas STOs and I are confident in saying that this will be the best Texas Thespians State Festival ever to be held! Workshops will be longer, Key-Note speakers will be added, and history will be made! As far as the in-person aspect and meeting tons of new people, we rewrote the stars by creating plenty of new opportunities for interactions. All eyes will be on us as we pioneer into a virtual world. The price of attending is only $50, ensuring more people from our state, and possibly others, will attend; this will expand your opportunities to meet new people! Here are a few things to look forward to at our 2020 Virtual Texas State Thespian Festival. The Merch. For the longest time, the Texas Thespians Community has been advertising their desires for more branded items. Well, from now on we will have an online merch store that will sell things like notebooks, sweaters, charging blocks and more! This year, you will be able to brand Texas Thespians beyond just shirts and pins. The Workshops. Workshops are a huge part of festival, and people usually feel like there are never enough options. We wanted to find a way to keep them interactive and informational, so we have a wider variety of options, longer sessions, and not to mention access to all content until January 2021. The Key-Note Speakers. Last year our speaker was Wilson Jermaine Heredia from Rent. He spoke to us about how theatre impacted his life and shared his talent with all 8,000+ of us. This year we will have multiple Key-Note Speakers who will share with us how theatre has impacted their lives and also perform pieces from some of the greatest shows you could think of. You will also have the opportunity to send in questions to our four key-note speakers. These questions will be answered during the live festival. The Interactions. Do you ever lie awake at night with a million dreams of festival in your mind? So do we! If you’re worried about not being able to meet new people during festival, there will be plenty of new ways to interact. Our festival platform will allow for interactions between thespians, colleges, vendors and even STOs in a new virtual way. Through our new online platform, we are able to include grants, Minute to Give it and lots and lots of scholarships virtually, and in case you haven’t heard, you may attend festival individually without your troupe! The STO Candidates. Even though the process will be online, candidates this year will not miss out on wearing the renowned candidate hats. Candidates usually feel like they’re walking a tightrope during festival to impress the STOs. This year, the candidate process is updated to where candidates have more options to connect with STOs while also going to workshops and attending shows. Through this process, the STOs will still be able to determine what candidates will be best for the job even though we can’t assess your skills of corralling people to buy ducks. Like usual, we want to see people who are confident in saying, “This is me, and here’s what I bring to the table.” The Theme. Some people look forward to the ducks, some await the best shows in Texas, and some reside on the other side awaiting the festival theme! Sadly, it will not be revealed on this blog post, BUT read closely and something might come alive. If this list of things doesn’t excite you enough, just think about the ducks! Until next time, Your 2020 Texas State Thespian Officers By: Tiffany Hoang, Foster HS Troupe 7961
Greetings Texas Thespians! Can you believe that festival begins NEXT WEEK?! As the date draws nearer, we would like to gently remind all of you about a couple of things that will help you prepare for the three days at the Texas Thespian State Festival. Theme Days- Make sure to pack the appropriate clothing for the theme days. Thursday: Building Each Other Up! - Wear your troupe shirt Friday: Building Our Futures! - Wear black for college auditions, scholarship interviews, and individual events Saturday: Building Our Creativity! - Dress up as your favorite character or dream job STO Workshops- We invite you to attend our workshops! Our Advocacy Workshop will be hosted by STO Ethan and STO Tiffany. In this workshop, we will teach you how to be an advocate for the theatre arts and play the ‘Elevator Speech’ game which will teach you how to deliver a speech and how to speak properly to adults. Our Leadership Workshop will be hosted by STO Jack and STO Jess. In this workshop, we will show you different ways to become an effective leader and play games that will strengthen team building and listening skills. STO Booth- Bring money to purchase merchandise. Ribbons for your name tags, buttons and pins, and Ducks, ducks, & MORE DUCKS! Recommended Packing List- IE Blacks Comfortable walking shoes Portable chargers Backpack or fanny pack to hold belongings Reusable water bottles (we will have water stations!) Theme Day outfits Extra cash for snacks, drinks, and booths Animate Your Troupe!- Want your troupe to be featured on the BIG screens at TTSF19? Make a video with no audio of your troupe! Still pictures and animated videos are allowed. Submit anything, as long as it’s appropriate! Videos should be around 45 seconds to a minute. Submit these videos to steward.savage@texasthespians.org The deadline is Monday, November 18th, 2019 Remember to download the app ‘Guidebook’ on your mobile devices. In Guidebook, you’ll be able to see the master schedule of the entire festival which includes the times for all of the different workshops, main stage shows, late night events, IE performances, etc. TTSF19 Guidebook will go LIVE at the beginning of next week. Be ready... We can’t wait to see y'all at festival! Love, Your 2019 Texas State Thespian Officers Follow Our Social Media! Texas Thespians’ Instagram: @texasthespians Texas Thespians’ Twitter: @Texas_Thespians Texas STO Twitter: @Texas_STO Texas Thespians Snapchat: Texas_Thespians Facebook: Texas Thespians Youtube: Texas Thespians Alright, get ready, because we’re about to talk a bit about the dances here at TTSF!
We have two this year, and they’re both going to be fantastic, but in order to make them an even better and more spectacular fantastic, we need a little help from our lovely thespians. THURSDAY NIGHT: A Tacky Tourist dance! Wear your best dad attire and enjoy the night as start the celebration for adventure! FRIDAY NIGHT: Two-Can Toucan dance! Step into the jungle for a bit and go wild at Friday’s dance… AFTER you give us two cans to donate to the Tarrant Area Food bank! But more on that in a moment. While we’re at the dances, the main thing we have to remember are the rules of the festival. Dances are for a good time, not a get-your-entire-troupe-in-huge-trouble time! Every single rule that applies to all day when you are running around to workshops, shows,and whatnot STILL applies at these dances. And if you need a reminder, you can find those all here: Or talk to your troupe officers! They should’ve attended the president’s meeting on thursday morning, and should be able to give you all the rules that were presented at the meeting. About the Two-Can dance! The Tarrant Area Food Bank is always thankful to us for providing enormous donations, and it’s because of your cans that we can do that. The Thespian Society is focused on helping everyone around us, and this is a really easy way to make sure that someone gets a meal, especially this close to the holiday season, we want to continually give! And for both dances, we really want to make sure you guys actually enjoy the music, right? So there’s a twitter account for you to request all of the best music. @ttsfdj Tweet at them! Message them! And seize the opportunity, because you can’t complain if you don’t request! ;) So dress up, bring your cans, request your beats, and follow the rules! We’re excited to see you! As you know, there’s a TON to do at festival. There’s never a dull moment... BUT sometimes it can get overwhelming when trying to figure out your schedule! So, if you're a little unsure of what you plan on using your time for, we’ve created a nifty guide of what’s hot this year: Events: Events are our cool little competitions we have at festival! We compete with everything from group musical numbers to individual stage management. Unfortunately, if you didn’t sign up before the 13th, I’m afraid it’s too late. But if you are signed up, GREAT! We wish you the best of luck! Workshops: Workshops are something that everyone can participate! These are cool little classes/demonstrations that you can participate in during the 60-90 minute time slots we provide for you! They can range from wild stage combat classes to a funky and fun learning of a popular musical theatre dance! They’re a blast, and there’s no need to sign up for them. Simply find the one you’re interested in in guidebook and attend at the right time! Guidebook is a nifty app we use for festival that will go live much closer to the actual event, read more about it below. Shows: We have a variety of shows to enjoy at festival, such as play marathons, a mainstage musical, multiple mainstage plays. They’re hand picked to be presented to you, and that means that they are guaranteed to be a fantastic watch. See the titles here: Talent Show: The talent show is a cool at festival event where anyone can sign up to perform for anyone who attends the talent show. We ask that you have something prepared ahead of time, but you can’t sign up until you get to festival. More information below: Closing Ceremonies: Something new we have this year is that we opened auditions for students to participate in a performance during closing ceremonies. They will be choreographed by 2 time EMMY nominee, Tony Smith, and they’ll get to perform with Mamie Parris, who’s starring in Broadway’s Cats! If you don’t audition before October 16th, you’re out of luck. But you can still enjoy the show! More info below: Vendors: You can also spend money at festival! Our vendors are fantastic and come through with anything from spike tape to Scripts! Everything for your theatre nerd dreams! Preview who they are here: Buttons: We’re trying something else new this year… Buttons! We have 4 different buttons for you: “Adventure Awaits,” “Texas Thespians,” “Dusty the Duck,” “STO.” You can buy the first three from our STO table (and lots of other neat stuff as always,) But the last one, the STO button, you can only earn by being a leader and having an STO witness it. But, we do want you guys to bring your own troupe buttons to pass around and spread good times with! Scavenger Hunt: We can’t say much about this one but.. Check out the STO table ;) August 5 kicks off our reveal of the 2017 Festival Theme: Adventure Awaits! We have so much planned for your Festival Experience - things like Geofilters, QR codes, prizes, treasure chest quests, and more!
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