Washington State Thespians

10/27/2021

Here’s the message we ALL need to be telling DOH: https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/opinio/s?s=DOHFeedback

It is financially impossible to mount a school musical without Covid relief funds if 6’ is the requirement. 6’ is every other row (or more) unsold and three empty seats between family units. No matter the size of your auditorium, this equates to a MINIMUM loss of 60% of ticket revenue.

DOH must reduce audience indoor spacing for schools to 3’ (or less) in time for winter and spring musicals in conjunction with a vaccine mandate or proof of negative for all patrons (same as Broadway). Otherwise, our programs need direct Covid relief money to subsidize those empty seats. Theatre teachers around the state are crunching the numbers and it just doesn’t work. Doubling ticket prices is an inequitable non-starter. Doubling or tripling the performance count is not academically feasible to theatre students who already do very intense and exhausting two weekend performance runs (not to mention sharing stages with music programs who would also likely have to increase their concert count for all families to attend). We are already fundraising relentlessly to do our shows at all and cannot fundraise an additional lost 60% of ticket revenue in order to follow this unfunded 6’ mandate.

Send a message to learn more

10/12/2021

Flip through the 2021 College Guide! Tips for tours, questions to ask recruiters and more! Share it with a friend and your students! https://dramatics.org/2021-college-guide/

09/02/2021

Check out the new Washington State Thespians Website. Get ready for the 2021-22 school year!

Washington State Thespians’ mission is shaping lives through theatre education by honoring student achievement in theatre and enriching their theatre education experience; supporting teachers by providing professional development, networking opportunities, resources, and recognition; and influenci...

08/25/2021

Theater Job Openings: .6 Theater/.4 Film at Rainier Beach High School in Seattle Wa. Posting is coming ASAP

Also looking for a long term sub (Sept-Nov 6) for a middle school drama position that also includes a class on board games and other fun creative classes in a North Seattle Public School.

Pm Rachel Street if interested in either. Any leads in either of these? She’d love your help!

08/24/2021

Calling all CTE Theatre teachers!

The “Skilled and Technical Sciences” (under which your CTE Theatre courses likely fall in your district) 5 Year Program Approval Cycle is up for OSPI to approve your district’s courses, frameworks, and critically, the CTSO components.

As well all know, SkillsUSA is among OSPI’s 8 approved CTSOs, and the one to represent CTE Theatre. In order for Washington Thespians to meet the CTE Student Leadership organization equivalency requirements for your CTE Theatre program (instead of SkillsUSA), your district’s CTE Director has to complete OSPI CTE Student Leadership Template document.

If OSPI approves Washington Thespians as a CTSO equivalent for one district, they should approve it for all districts.

If you are interested in collaborating on a standard OSPI CTE Student Leadership Template document for all of our CTE Directors to submit for our Theatre courses, please email Ben Stuart at [email protected]

It’s a relatively simple form, and if OSPI receives it from ALL of our districts, it will help us advocate for WA Thespians/EdTA to be one of the official CTSO’s for the state so we don’t have to jump through this hoop every five years!

08/19/2021

WA Thespians response to DOH's Guidance

Dear Theatre Teachers/Directors:

On Wednesday, August 10, the State Department of Health released the K-12 guidance for Sports and Extracurricular Activities. WA Thespians was shocked to note the disparity between the Sports guidance and the Extracurricular Performing Arts guidance. A document was drafted and sent to DOH, WIAA and OSPI the same day outlining the inequitable discrepancies between what athletes could do versus what performing artists could do. By the evening of August 10th, a meeting was scheduled to discuss the issues and explore possible resolutions. Suzanne Maguire, WA State Thespians Board secretary, attended a meeting with representatives from DOH, WMEA (Music Educators), Seattle Public Schools arts administrators and James Weaver from NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations).

HIGHLIGHTS:
Committee members recognize the disparity between Sports and Extracurricular Performing Arts and are willing to consider changes.
Suzanne emphasized that Theatre is the only extracurricular performing art. (Music classes are co-curricular so any activities outside the school day are tied to a class. Theatre productions can exist outside a classroom context.)
If screening and testing is available for unvaccinated cheerleaders who are allowed to "practice, perform and compete" without masks, theatre performers should be given the same opportunities.
The governor's new mandate as of 8.18.21 may mean some changes to current sports guidance.
The DOH has the documents and reasoning for why/how theatre extracurricular activities can follow the same guidelines as sports and will look to making changes to the current guidance.

We continue to advocate for all extracurricular theatre programs and will update you as we become aware of any changes. If you need any assistance with advocacy in your district or building or have any questions about the document, feel free to reach out.

Wishing you all the best in the coming year!

06/26/2021

A massive congratulations to the record SIX Thespy winners from Washington State who were among just 28 total across all categories of the International Thespian Excellence Awards! To put this achievement into perspective, 640 submissions (among thousands of submissions world-wide) at regional Thespy events this year qualified for the Virtual International Thespian Festival, and over 20% of the winners are Washington Thespians:

🏆 Ona Alumbaugh of Roosevelt High School in Seattle (troupe 5832) won Stage Management for Everybody

🏆 Claire Charvet of Juanita High School in Kirkland (troupe 3422) won Lighting Design with She Kills Monsters: Young Adventurers' Edition

🏆 Bennett Cooper of Joel E. Ferris High School in Spokane (troupe 1506) won for Costume Construction with The Phantom of the Opera

🏆 Corinne Fischer of Roosevelt High School in Seattle (troupe 5832) won the Monologue honor for Eleemosynary/Dance Nation

🏆 Maxine Palmerton of Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane (troupe 6356) won Lighting Design with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

🏆 Caroline Yim of Juanita High School in Kirkland (troupe 3422) won Scenic Design for The Hound of the Baskervilles

Congrats to ALL and we’ll see you at the Washington State Thespy’s next year!

https://playbill.com/thespys2021?fbclid=IwAR1k3h78sZ5dmXkpCIxF3X82CxjoKeX_04NqLRz0Vc2EaNbW-q9acc64ZOg

Ten exceptional students were chosen from the Thespian honorees to receive $35,000 scholarships through the Princess Grace Foundation.

02/27/2021

We had more than 300 Virtual Thespy submissions and our adjudicators expressed how impressed they were with everyone's work under such extraordinary circumstances.

Follow the UPDATED email instruction to log into your EdTA account to view your scores and judges comments. If you received an overall score of SUPERIOR, you are a national qualifier! If you choose to attend, your work can be adjudicated at ITF, the International Thespian Festival. If you received an overall score of EXCELLENT, you are a state honoree and you will be recognized at our state festival. We want to congratulate all students who achieved these honors!

All students who scored SUPERIOR are eligible for consideration for our virtual state showcase. Everyone whose work is chosen for the State Showcase will be notified next week. (Please note that the state showcase will be a virtual showcase featuring the original video submission.)

We are so proud of all of you and the work you submitted! Your teacher will register students for state so communicate with them if you're interested in all the cool opportunities our Virtual State event will have. Information is on our WA State Thespians Virtual State Thespian Conference page. We hope you and your troupe will join in the fun!

Congratulations again from WA State Thespians!

09/23/2020

Attn: seniors! Registration opens today, $15 for Thespians, $25 for non-Thespians! One video submission seen by dozens of theatre programs around the US and Canada!

The “2020 Washington Unified College Auditions” will be going online (and International!) in a regional partnership with Oregon Thespians and British Columbia Thespians! We anticipate an increase of participating colleges and universities who are eager to see the class of 2021 talent in the .....

08/21/2020

To continue your script library

07/07/2020

You've probably heard of the International Thespian Association. After all, 2.4 million high school kids have been inducted into the program since 1929 (and I know several of you out there right now a