This year’s International Thespian Festival theme is “Imagine the Past, Present, Future.” If you would like to tell us how this theme has applied to your life or would like to share your experiences at Festival, let us know! Send us email or contact us on our Facebook page! Here are some stories from last year's theme "Ignite the Limelight":

"Being in the limelight" In general is to be a performer. but I think that it goes beyond that.. I think you can be in the limelight by helping someone, being there for a friend or family member, Or even raising money for your thespians troupe. Our troupe is doing a dance-a-thon sometime in the next month and we are raising money for the homeless shelters in our local area. I hope to raise a lot of money for this outreach and I am sure others will be grateful and benefit from our charity. By doing this outreach I believe that we will this is a example of "being in the limelight."
-David Baker Troupe #1553

When my troup from Mountlake Terrace, WA performed in Nebraska last year, we had a blast. Our cast of four guys (me included) did the show "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged" and loved every minute of it. Going around campus after the shows, people everywhere were telling us "good job" and "loved the show" etc. We felt famous. None of us had experienced this kind of recognition before (since our high school doesn't really care much about the arts). Whenever people stopped us in Nebraska we'd always thank them, strike up a short conversation, and then go on our merry way. Then, while we were in line to see one of the mainstage shows, we all experienced the most rewarding moment of the week long trip (at least in my opinion). A middle aged woman approached us and asked if we were the cast of "Shakespeare." We told her we were and she said, "I have a degree in Shakespearean literature and I've always hated the show 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare'...but you made me love it." We were all floored. This woman who had spent her whole life studying shakespeare liked OUR performance of his works after years of hating the show. It was the biggest compliment we could have gotten and for the first time I felt that our show had had some sort of effect on someone. All of the other compliments we'd gotten throughout the week (though they made us feel good) paled in comparison to what this woman had just told us. And I'll never forget it.
-Nick Terry Troupe #3627

Being in the limelight means putting on a production that showcases everyone's talents. Every actor, techie, crew chief and director, gives all that they have to the show. It is more than individual recognition. Maybe you had the lead, good for you. Maybe you were the stage manager, that's great. But an individual actor or techie can accomplish nothing. Without the entire community of directors, techies, and actors working together, we can accomplish nothing of significance. Together, we can do great things. We can move an audience to tears. We can communicate a theme larger than ourselves. We can ignite the limelight.
-John Stark Troupe #4274

In March of 2007 Thespian Troupe 2168 from Toms River High School South performed the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Rupert Holmes. Though a hard play to preform, we did it perfectly and professionally. One thing that not everyone knows about our performance was that it was changed from the original script especially for us. Our director contacted Mr. Holmes himself and he gave us an entire scene especially for our performance. To me I feel that our recognition for being able to pull off such a difficult show, with a scene given to us from the creator, is a time my troupe was in the spotlight.
-JJ Merell Troupe #2168

My definition on being in the limelight is touching peoples' hearts with the productions we put on at our school. Personally, I like to be remembered for my great performances. Our troupe has put on many plays but the one play that has touched people the most is "Tracks." We do our best with what we have at our school, and we do not have much at all. A real drama troupe can put on a play with out any costumes or any props and still keep people interested. I am proud to be a president of the Waccamaw acting troupe, because no matter what we do people always talk about our drama troupe, we do our best to put on a great show, and we always do.
-Karli Sinclair Troupe #7137

Our theatre troupe really has no one individual that stands out in the limelight. It's more like we all stand together as a single artistic entity. We stress the true meaning of ensemble and just go with it, and because of that, we have always tried to perform ensemble shows. Our troupe has had its ups and downs in its 40 year history, and our membership dropped to its lowest point three years ago, when I was the only thespian that didn't graduate. A group of us theatre folk decided we would start fresh. We worked hard and got the ball rolling. Through ITS, we became involved in the North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC) competition, where we took "The Bald Soprano" by Eugene Ionesco. We were the only new school there, as our troupe hadn't participated in over 5 years, and we had the smallest amount of funding (virtually nothing, with a set made up of an old couch, 2 wooden chairs and a plywood rolling wall). The spirit of Thespis was burning inside of us as we became a true ensemble, and we went on to receive a superior rating and 4 awards including Overall Best Ensemble and Overall State-Level Runner Up. We felt like we had just lived through the movie "Dodgeball", and we had finally made a name for ourselves. This was our first moment in the spotlight, and I can promise you, that there will be many more moments like this in the years to come.
-Jake Krug Troupe #3313

My definition of being in the "limelight" is something you do on your own. Being in the limelight means that everything, not only yourself, looks near perfect when it comes time to perform. In the show that means whether you are a lead or a minor part of a grip or any position. You do your best to promote the show as a whole. I don't believe you can be in the limelight if you care only about yourself. If you do that than you might look decent but the rest of the show will just look bad. Everyone in a play enhances one another by doing their best. So when the technical aspects are all on cue and all the actors are into the show and taking it seriously it looks fantastic. The limelight is awfully big and it takes the collaboration of everyone involved in a play to truly shine beneath it.
-Chris DiTomaso Troupe #4566

"All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women are merely players..." To me, William Shakespeare epitomized what it means to be in the limelight with these lines. While it is obvious that one can be in the limelight on the literal stage while performing under the glow of the spotlight, I think that the most valuable place to shine is throughout day-to-day life. As thespians, we should "act well our part" both on stage and off stage, as role models and as ambassadors of the community. Through theatre we have the ability to put ourselves in the limelight for an audience to see, to reveal the deepest parts of ourselves through this beautiful art form. The most wonderful part of the limelight is the ability to share it with others.
-Lindsay Johnson Troupe # 7436

Over the years I have done theatre from my high school to community theatre to professional work and through it all one director stood out to me the most. Her name was Sara King. Sara had always had a huge expectation above her because both of her parents were local legends. Her mom the local go to voice teacher that had been performing in shows for years, and her dad still performing in operas at the local opera company. Sara had chosen to follow their paths into a life in the limelight. Because Sara was talented people would often create conflict with her and try to drag her down. Sara would never let any of it get to her. She was always positive and wonderful to work with. She would go out into the community and do work with her parents a a very high level. On top of that she kept up her grades in high school, participated in our shows and others in the community, and kept a virtually flawless positive image on top of it all. All of Sara's hard work paid off when she was chosen as one of the presidential scholars and got to sing for the President of the United States along with a handful of other humble talented teens. Today, Sara King is a junior Otterbein where she is studying musical theatre. She is still touching and inspiring many people through her art to this day. Sara has inspired me my whole life. It just goes to show a little hard work and positive energy can bring great things to not only you, but the people around you.
-Sydney Magers Troupe #4501

I think that the limelight is something that every actor tries to achieve. Many thespians, including myself see it as the moment that you have your name on the top of the playbill or you have the big dance solo, but I think that the limelight can be achieved by anyone. There are so many people making that lead character look great. I think being in the limelight means having that self confidence in your craft and in yourself and instilling it in your fellow actor and/or technician and letting the audience see the hard work you've put into something.
-Chad Burris Troupe #6338

To be in the limelight means to put all focus on a central point. Whether you're on stage and in the limelight, or if a cause you are working for is in the limelight, it is defined as what all attention is directed towards. Every student who has been in the limelight in my community has been there because they followed something they loved, stuck to it, and were eventually rewarded for it. Whether they submitted a play to be judged for our State Thespian Conference, made the winning touchdown in the last few seconds of the big football game, or started a brand new service project in town, my peers have been known to inspire others by following their passion
–Ariel ThileniusTroupe #2445

In our troupe (TROUPE #2317 REPRESENT!), we try and allow students to have a variety of opportunities to creatively express themselves. In our productions the students are the ones who design the makeup, costumes, set, props, and lighting. We push our students to do what is best for the production and allow them to use their creativity to show that. Also, throughout the year we have a variety of fundraisers and showcases where students can "showcase" what they have been working on, performance-wise. The performances range from speeches to mime, poetry to musical theatre, and monologues to choral reading. Pretty much, we try and find outlets to allow each student to creatively express themselves and be acknowledged for that work.
–Sdra Vasiljevic Troupe #2317

I believe that being in the limelight means that people look to you. You have their undivided attention and it's up to you as to how you use it. Anything you do impacts those people in any way. It can be an extremely flattering and at the same time scary. It easy to say that the students who get the leads in shows are automatically in the limelight. And while that's true, it's also a safe answer. My fellow senior actor Danielle Darcy cannot be found in the spotlight, and yet all eyes are on her. She willingly signed up and took the connotation of a stage manager in my school as "the person who didn't get in the show" and turned that around! Danielle commands attention and boy does she receive it! The actors and other crew members look up to her and trust her completely.
-Katie Verde Troupe #6185

At Edina high school, we try to market our shows and thespian club activities as much as possible. The thespians are not a very large portion of the population at Edina, so it's pretty difficult to get different types of people to come to the shows. It's generally the same audience every time. This is really a shame because we all put so much hard work into our shows and we want everyone to see that the reason none of us have lives is because we truly love and believe in what we're doing, and we want to share the joy we get from performing with everyone at Edina high school. One tradition we have at Edina is to, on opening day, have everyone in the cast and crew wear the shirts we get for whatever show we're putting on around school all day. The seniors also make signs for everyone to wear around their necks that say their name and the role they play in the show. This has proven to be a great marketing technique and it really puts our show in the limelight, because the school sees how much we care about our show.
-Emily Liebman Troupe #1539

To be in the limelight is commonly defined as to be the center of attention. However, in my opinion, being in the limelight means that you must also earn that attention. It's not enough to have people watching you, you've got to be responsible for the story you're telling and the message you're trying to send and the emotions you want to awaken in the audience. I alone did nothing to get my "troupe" to get into the limelight. I think theater is a group effort, or a fine-tuned machine, like a watch: one cog missing and it won't work. Everyone and their contributions are extremely important to the success of a show. So I guess to answer your question, I got/get my troupe into the limelight by working with them as a group and not trying to hog the attention, so to speak. Individual students have been in the limelight at my school/community by, as I said, working as a part of the whole group to put on a great show. They also get into the limelight through exceptional hard work and dedication, such as a friend of mine who has been in every show since sophmore year, regardless of what part they got.
-Teddy Hoffman Troupe #1539

To be in the limelight is an act of courage and a huge responsibility. You have a responsibility to your cast, your peers, your audience, and yourself. At our school we encourage our fellow members to participate in competitions. A great deal of it was advertising and simply getting the word out. One girl in our school (Bree Mahoney) organized a Darfur awareness group, and our Gay Straight Alliance are always helping put people center stage.
-Laurel Delany Troupe #6185

I believe when I am in the limelight, I am the character with giant facial expressions; strong emotions; and live actions because I rehearsed my character for three months. Then, it is show time and I am being a character for the audience in the limelight. When I am performing on stage, all I can see are the white lights shining brightly; until I hear the audience reactions, I know it’s a packed theater—it is so amazing!
-Steven Pedro Troupe #1717

We have done many plays and we work really hard. This school year we did two productions HELLO, DOLLY! and TEN LITTLE INDIANS. The Thespian Officers are Breanna Castle, Aaron Barber, Becky Woerner, Josh Kennedy, Mary Fiske, and Sydni Smith. Grants Pass has three high school theatres and Grants Pass is the one I hear of the most. We do Regionals, TOTS, Old Peoples Housing Shows, Productions, and other stuff in our community; we actually started a thing called Caroling For Cans! Some of the past plays that we have done are 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, Fools, The Music Man, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Fat Chance, The Comedy of Errors, and many more. I think that we are all like a family we live, laugh and work together! Thank you for the consideration and for reading our story. I would like to thank our wonderful director Katie Skudstad for helping all of us SHINE!
Aaron Barber Troupe # 2345

Our troupe is taking a children's theater piece and touring to local elementary school. We are going to perform The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. My personal definition of being in the limelight would be being spotlighted or recognized for something you have done.
-Stephen Hilson Troupe #303

To be in the limelight means that someone draws attention to themselves but not in an arrogant or disgusting way. They are someone who can do great things making everyone like then but still being more humble than belief.
-Kyle Gillikin Troupe #5688

To be in the limelight would mean to have done something extraordinary or great that puts you in the line of focus. We are the best at what we do and just try to do it our best. I found out today that the children's theater show we did at Jefferson has been nominated for and Icky award. They have made it so our school has been put in the papers or in the news for positive things, instead of the negative things.
-Jake Rozendaal Troupe #561