As the curtain rose on the 2015 Pennsylvania International Thespian Society Festival, over a thousand teenage actors, singers, dancers, and techies settled into the auditorium seats that they would call home for the weekend of their lives.

  The afternoon of December 3 began when Troupe 4088, Susquehannock’s division of ITS, travelled to Central York High School just in time for Pennsbury’s A Piece of My Heart, just one of over a dozen shows that would be put on over the three-day occasion.

  Troupe sponsor and theatre director Will Jenkins explains the festival as both an exciting and informational one.

  “I think the best way to describe it is a big conference filled with students that love theatre from all over the state,” Jenkins said. “They participate in workshops to help build their abilities and watch shows performed by their peers.”

  The average day at ITS Festival is full to the brim with different sights to see, according to senior and troupe treasurer Shannon Moran.

  “Usually [the day] starts with a show,” said Moran. “For certain days there’s IEs [Individual Events], [and] there’s auditions and stuff, but usually there’s one-acts that you can stay and watch or there’s ones that you can…get a ticket for in the black box…then…you go to lunch…workshops, and then another show, so there’s plenty of stuff to do during the day.”
  Though the festival always presents itself with new and exciting opportunities to enjoy, this year was quite different than last for members of Troupe 4088; at 2014’s state festival, they performed the play The 39 Steps on Central’s mainstage, a show that took them all the way to the national festival in Lincoln, Nebraska.

  Jenkins notes that the seemingly huge differences between this larger festival and its statewide counterpart may not have been so stark after all.

  “I knew that after going to Nebraska, the state festival would feel somewhat small to those in the cast of 39 Steps,” said Jenkins. “Thankfully, the State festival had a great selection of shows, so I think our pining for the greater size of the National festival went away quickly…I think comparing state and national conferences is very much like comparing apples and oranges…our state conference is amazing in what it does with what it has, even though it’s on a much smaller scale.”

  What remained the same between the two festivals was, naturally, the emphasis on days of nonstop theatre.

  Sophomore troupe member and costume crew member Nell Pugliese recounts her favorite aspects of both events.

  “I like the shows, ‘cause, you know, normally, you’ll…[see] a show every six months. but here, it’s like 17 in a weekend,” Pugliese said. “I went to [a workshop] with the same person I had for one last year that was Careers in Costuming; it was very interesting…there was a fun playwriting one…that was also interesting, ‘cause I don’t get to do a lot of acting, like, ever in my life.”

  Said workshops have always been an integral part of the average thespian’s weekend, interspersing endless long shows and one-acts with 75-minute long professional sessions on any number of topics, as Moran experienced on the festival’s second day.

  “I took the leadership workshop…[where] they…talked about how to be a better leader, how to be a leader, and confidence…then I went to a Shakespeare workshop, and we kind of…looked at…slang and the wording, and…how different it is from today, and then we acted that out…since people don’t know the words, usually, in Shakespeare, we kind of…guessed at what they were, and it was fun.”

  After three days of laughing, crying, and a lot of spontaneous a capella, the cast of State College High School’s James and the Giant Peach took their final bow, and it was time to reflect, just as Jenkins did, on the festival’s past and Troupe 4088’s future.

  “The festival is much more organized than it ever has been,” Jenkins said. “On my first year I took three students, and it was majorly overwhelming to say the least. In the time since, everything has become much more streamlined and more of a well-oiled machine…I’m always interested in watching how other troupes do things on stage. Many times you catch little things in a troupe’s performance that you may want to bring home and try with your own.”

  And try they will – as the spring musical Pippin approaches quickly with auditions being held on December 16, 17, and 18, the love of the theatre is likely to be kept alive in the festival’s attendees…at least long enough to last until next year.