It was a busy weekend for high school thespian members across the state.

The International Thespian Society Festival (ITS) took place this past weekend at Central York High School Bringing any students together.

There were four main stages and many more one-acts for students and staff to watch.

Junior Dan Poole attended the festival and was willing to share some of the highlights of the event.

“Personally, my favorite part about the festival this year is probably watching these shows that everyone gets to put on and going to these workshops to become a better person and also college auditions because a lot of colleges were interested in me,” said Poole.

  There were also many workshops that could help performers improve their acting, singing and dancing.

“The workshops are things that we go to,” said Poole. “There are three sessions you can go to as an active thespian. There are different types of workshops. There are acting workshops, there are tech workshops… just because you’re a thespian doesn’t mean you have to act or sing. You can be tech, or costume crew, or behind the scenes of any sort, and these workshops are there to help the people and prove their needs.”

  Senior Brendan Paules auditioned in front of theater professors at a lot of colleges in the area and won a $200 scholarship in musical theater.

“It’s pretty cool… the money is nice, but having that reward really means a lot to me, and standing up there with such talented people really means a lot to me,” said Paules.

  Paules also talked about the purpose of the festival and what it means for people involved in theater.

“I think it’s an opportunity for thespians or any kids involved in theater to come together from across Pennsylvania to not only show off their talents but just join together and show that unity, that quality that theater has, not only in our own building but across the entire world,” said Paules.

  Senior Kaleb Fair was an STO officer for the festival and explained the theme for this year.

“The theme of this year’s festival was ‘Thespionage,’” Fair explained. “Various spy and mystery aspects were thrown in there. It was funny because our chapter director was ‘kidnapped’ by one of the state thespian officers, so a theme throughout the conference was that everyone had to figure out which of the state thespian officers did it.”

 Susky Theatre is already excited for next year’s festival.