We are so excited to welcome many of you at our Virginia Thespian Festival in a couple of weeks! We hope your winter break was restorative, inspiring, and you welcome in the new year with cheer! Please email if you have questions, but keep in mind, there could be a delay due to our last minute preparations for our. "Out of This World" Festival 2023!

Follow us on social media @vathespians or Virginia Thespians for more information and updates! We would love to know how to support you this year. Please complete our 2023 Troupe Director Survey.

STAY INFORMED DURING VTF- download our app: Eventsential: Type “Virginia Thespians" in the search bar. It will take you to the Education Theatre Association page, then click “Virginia Thespians Festival” again as an option, it will load the content and you press continue. It is very interactive and filled with useful information. You can see what programs/majors are offered at colleges, which artists are teaching which sessions, and more!

VTO stands for Virginia Thespian Officer.

The State Thespian Officers are made up of a small group of elected and appointed students (7-15) from around the state. They are open to Juniors/ Seniors ideally with prior leadership experience. They are elected at VTF via an application and interview process.

APPLY BY Jan 9th to be considered, HERE TODAY!

**INTERVIEWS WILL HAPPEN AT VTF THIS YEAR! IF you cannot go, let us know on your application so we can interview in advance. Thank you! Email with any other questions stos@vathespian.org.

First come, first serve. Sign up for your volunteering slots below. IF they are all full, please email us so we can put you on as a back up for certain duties/time slots.

Fourth Wall is an educational consulting company that guides performing arts students and families through the college and audition admissions processes. Our goal is to create a successful experience through deadline management strategies, reducing stress surround an unfamiliar process.

*It is never too early to starting the process. As early as Freshman year this team can help you through every step of the way!

Did you know we have collected our own list of resources for you? You can find them here and our previous newsletters here! Happy Exploring!

Your Full Conference (FCON) registration includes:

-1 room stay on August 8th

-Daily happy hour with FREE drinks & appetizers

-Two FULL days of PD with multiple options per session

-Boxed lunches for both days from Apple Spice Catering

*You can opt for the Basic Conference (BCON) option if you are commuting, sharing a room to split the room costs with a teacher friend, or plan to stay elsewhere.

*Register here and complete this form.

All hotel rooms (reserved through us) & meeting spaces will be at Drury Plaza Hotel: 11049 W Broad St, Glen Allen, VA 23060

Need an adaptable script for your next show? TIFE Theatre might be for you!

Hi my name is Jason Lemire, a fellow theatre teacher, and founder of a new, unique playscript licensing company, TIFE Theatre.

What sets TIFE apart is our enthusiasm for working with schools to customize our playscripts to reflect the creativity and community of the programs who license with us.

This includes allowing troupes to change the names of characters to reflect the names in their own communities, and encouraging troupes to work with their partnering playwright to infuse their troupe's production with improvised discoveries made during the rehearsal process.

We also happen to have very strong material that is particularly successful at capturing the teenage voice and experience.

TIFE was warmly received this fall at the EdTA's National Conference in Los Angeles, and we are now exploring which state conferences to attend as vendors and workshop presenters.

With this in mind, I was curious if you could tell me a bit about Virginia's events this year, both for students and teachers, in terms of expected attendance as well as what opportunities there might be for TIFE to introduce itself to the teachers and students in Virgnina.

Wishing you the best in your respective upcoming productions!

Did you hear we have a Virginia Thespians Alumni Facebook group? Consider passing this along to your graduating seniors. So far, it is an inspiring network of over 250 professionals, who can be valuable resources for your students beyond high school. These are previous Thespians who remember what it is like to be in their shoes and many of which are happy to serve as mentors. We are creating an alumni board to also fundraise resources for students going to festival, bring in more alumni guest artists, and more! If you are an alumni, consider joining it yourself! We have many more plans in store for the alumni to partner with us to support the current as well as future generations of Virginia Thespians! Join us today!

Taking a school trip soon? There's a new tour company called ImpACT Tours! Click on the PDF below to read more about them!

Here is an easy step-by-step checklist for spring inductions. Use these materials as you see fit!

1. Hold an interest meeting. Ask- Who is interested in becoming inducted into ITS?

2. Share out the point application for students to complete with their past and current theatrical experiences for certain point values.

3. Have students fill out the Member Google form, for the exact information you need to collect to put them into the official ITS/ EdTA system, and pay $35 for the one-time membership fee, which lasts them a lifetime. (More materials at the bottom of the newsletter to promote and explain ITS.)

4. Hold inductions. Here is a sample outline to use. You can create your own rituals, traditions, or if you are in a pinch, it can be less than 30 minutes before school starts or before a rehearsal for example.

5. Log into your myedta account to input all of your new inductees.

6. Pay the lump sum as the director, if your students didn't pay EdTA directly. Our suggestion is to collect the money as you typically do for school events, work with your bookkeeper or boosters to cut one check to EdTA to keep it simple.

7. Hold an end of year or semester celebration to hand out the new goodies when they are delivered to the school!

Don't have a troupe yet? Read more about the benefits and process here!

Here is a Google Slides PPT about Thespians to encourage students to join.

Here is a Festival Guide for students or new troupe directors.

Why join or have an ITS troupe? Share with students & administrators!