Washington State Thespians

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.

Washington State Thespians Send a message to learn more

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/

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

2021 Thespy Awards, Hosted by Aladdin Star Michael James Scott, Streams on Playbill June 25 | Playbill Ten exceptional students were chosen from the Thespian honorees to receive $35,000 scholarships through the Princess Grace Foundation.

When schools reopen, how will school theater programs reopen? Recommendations here. 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