We had a FANTASTIC record-breaking Virginia Thespians Festival this year! Over 20 performances, 400+ competitors, almost 40 different schools represented, about 30 colleges represented, over 40 vendors, and so much more! Congratulations to all of our honorees, winners, competitors, and attendees for showing your dedication to your art form/ passions at VTF! Happy Black History Month, VHSL competitions for certain districts, winter shows, & more!

We hope you join us again next year or consider coming for the first time. We had over 1k people laughing, performing, teching, and more together. Let's keep showing our colleagues, politicians, etc. that we are Virginia Theatre Strong! Speaking of strong theatre choices, next month is Theatre in our Schools Month! Stay tuned!

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 and our 2023 Attendee Survey.

Congratulations!

After reviewing our system, we found some more Thespys that qualify as superiors to move on. If you did not receive your superior ribbons and you are on our list, please send executivedirector@vathespian.org an email so we can arrange to send you yours. Congratulations again to all those who competed!

Looking to add more skills into your department? Tackle a new show or theatre discipline? We can connect you with artists! We bring in almost 100 artists with different disciplines each year. We also work with our partner, Creative Stages to bring master classes to YOU! Reach out to us or them for more information today! creativestagesdmv@gmail.com.

February is usually when school boards review their budgets. Keep aware and ask around about what is going towards fine arts in your district and share out any information you find that would be useful to share with others!

We are looking for more students to apply for VTO positions. Share the application and apply by Feb. 28th. Virtual interviews will happen in March.

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

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!