With sweat trickling down his face, the sun beating down on his skin, junior Christian Galang whacks away with a hammer as he helps build sets for Thespian Festival.
“Right now we’re working on Avenue Q, but we’re also preparing for Thespian Festival,” Galang said. “The actors are practicing their pieces and people building the sets are buying supplies and sketching potential plans. ”
Building sets, designing costumes, and studying lines for up-coming plays become essential practice for Thespians as they prepare for Texas Thespian Festival, an annual theater competition. This three-day competition allows students to showcase their talent, win awards, and receive college scholarships.
With the festival just ahead December 2, the pressure becomes more intense as Thespians scramble to prepare.
“All of the actors are blocking their scenes and running it over again to make it smooth and presentable,” junior Jennifer Ho said. “When it comes closer to Thespian Festival, each actor or group of actors are going to perform their piece in front of Ms. [Julie] Ryan or Mr. [Roger] Martin to get critiques and polish up a few things.”
And it’s not just the actors who are hard at work, but also the technical crew, composed of makeup artists, costume designers, set builders, publicity, and light and sound workers.
“Make-up artists are practicing performing different make-up designs on specific people,” Ho said. “They experiment on foundation and hairstyles, and then they show it to Ms. Ryan for approval.”
While it may seem as though acting is the only event at Thespian Festival, there are also tons of other events which non-actors can participate as well.
“There are like ten million events [at Thespian Festival],” junior Diane Chau said. “We’re preparing for Techie Relay, Set Design, Costume Construction, and much more.”
Although Thespians are busily at work, the up-coming play Avenue Q does not seem to provide much problems.
“It’s not so bad balancing Thespian Festival and Avenue Q because rehearsals for Avenue Q are only at school,” said Ho. “Thespian Festival doesn’t really get in the way with rehearsals, so that’s good!
