Thespians Thespianize: Mainstage Theatre Competes at the Regional Level

By Allison Zoe Schneider

Treacherous was the journey. Terrible were the monsters vanquished. Brutal were the battles fought. Tragic were the lives lost for the cause. But in the end, victorious we prevailed.

On January 16, Mainstage Theatre traversed to Redmond, WA to compete in the Individual Event (IE) Festival for Western Washington, a competition for competing competitive thespians. A thespian relates to one who is involved in theatre.

“I think it was really valuable and people had a lot of fun,” Mainstage director, Susan Donahue said.

The IE Festival is a sort of regional competition for theatre. There is one for Western and one for Eastern Washington. Mainstage took a total of 17 students to the competition.

Events students could compete in were Monologue, Duo Acting, Group Acting, Solo Musical, Duo Musical, Group Musical, and Pantomime.

There were novice categories in the Monologue and Duo Acting competitions for those who have not had the opportunity to become as well-acquainted with theatre.

“We learned a lot about how to be better performers and better actors,” Donahue said.

Everyone has the opportunity to compete at the IE Festival. Those in the top 20% are considered “regional winners” and are given some sort of medal to enhance their ego and, well, really nothing beyond that.

Those who place in the top 10% continue to the International Thespian Festival in late June in Lincoln, Nebraska and have a chance to be showcased at the Washington State Thespian Conference held in March.

Thespian Conference is a chance for high school theatre programs around the state to attend workshops and show each other the plays they have done or are in progress of doing. It is much more low-key than the IE Festival.

“Around 400-500 actors came to this event and for the first time in a while, some of them were Mainstage kids. I knew how much of a learning experience this was going to be and I’m glad we went,” Donahue said.