This month, a select group of students have been chosen to compete at the Texas Thespians Festival, hoping for a chance to advance to the competition at the International Thespian Festival this summer. Every year, Texas Thespians host two state festivals, one in Corpus Christi and the other in Grapevine. The festival spans one weekend where participants get to go to different workshops, performances, and sessions. They compete in a variety of categories, including duet acting, stage management, musical theatre dance, contrasting monologues, and costume design. With only 15 competition spots for the Coppell High School troupe and 15 for the CHS9 troupe, the competitors had to first audition their pieces in class to then be chosen for the official competition. It is an honor for these talented students to be able to represent the Coppell Theatre Department, and a lot of preparation has gone into perfecting these pieces. Just last weekend the students performed for friends and family at the CHS Theatre Gala on Saturday. With only two weeks until the competition, they are working tirelessly to fine-tune their pieces. Out of the 39 competing, 10 are New Tech students! From CHS9 Baylor Crowell (9) and Catherine Richardson (9) are competing with a duet acting piece, and Nicolas Nieto (9) is performing two contrasting monologues. From the CHS troupe: Jessica Bunting (12) is doing a duet musical, Anisha Satish (12) is competing in costume design, Olivia Guerra (11) is performing a musical theatre dance solo, Sabrina Vrla (11) and Lena Gay (10) are doing a duet acting scene, Lucy Martinson (12) is also doing a duet acting, and Sophia Ninan (12) is competing in stage management.
I spoke to two students about the process, Sabrina Vrla (11) and Lena Gay (10). Both competed at the festival last year and have big expectations for this year’s competition. The two students are in the Black Box class and have been using class time to prepare their piece. After speaking to them, they both mentioned how the CHS Theatre director, Glenn Price, had a specific process for selecting pieces. He hosted two rounds of auditions, after the first he gave the students feedback and a chance to audition. Vrla and Gay decided to change their scene completely once they got feedback. “Our first piece wasn’t chosen, but we were given a second chance to find the scene we’re with now,” said Vrla when asked about the audition process.
Now when it comes to feedback, the pair sought opinions from many sources. There was feedback from Price during the auditions, but in between then Vrla and Gay sought feedback from their peers. They mentioned asking their friends to watch their scene and help them rework them. Vrla also talked about how she finds the most helpful way to critique a piece is to reflect on it yourself. “The most important (feedback) comes from within,” by replaying the scene in your head to identify the flaws and successes. Meanwhile Gay talked about how helpful the feedback at the actual competition is. “And the best way to get feedback is once you get your scores back from TTF. The judges provide a different point of view that really helps in future years.” Gay competed last year, and although she didn’t advance, gained a lot from the judges’ critics. There are about 3-4 judges in the room, and they each write feedback on every section of the scoring rubric. It’s often pretty detailed and specific, making it very helpful to implement in future work.
With rounds of auditions and tons of criticism, preparing a piece for TTF is often very overwhelming and stressful. Even though there is lots of anxiety when it comes to competing, the festival itself also provides a lot of fun workshops and opportunities for the participants. Gay mentioned that this year she is “most excited to have a fun time with the people I love most, doing what I love.” Some of Gay’s closest friends are in theatre and will also be competing at the festival, so it’s a great bonding opportunity. Meanwhile, Vrla is excited to explore the festival. She said that “while the general gist never changes, the people and experiences do, making it memorable.” As many schools frequent the festival, TTF is an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals who are also there to learn and grow their skills. Students get to meet lots of new people during their weekend at the Gaylord.
Hard work sure does pay off, and let’s hope this competition is no exception! Best of luck to the talented students competing this month, you got this!
