Check our website for the most up to date information and follow us on our socials! Schedule a meeting with Addie and take our 2023-24 survey (similar to last year's if you completed it with updates for this year).

💎💚 Registration is in full swing! 💚💎 Join us Jan 9-11th for #vtf2025! Stay tuned for more exciting announcements!💎 Headliners are coming out soon and regular registration ends 11/15!

We would also love to share out about your programs on our social media pages. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @vathespians so we can follow you back/keep track of your happenings. You may see your school or show featured soon. Use #vathespians for us to easily find your post! Enjoy media from summer events to see what the Thespians have been up to...

Below is our newsletter from a few weeks ago when registration opened! If you are a teacher of a school who wants to come, go here, if you are looking to book a hotel room, go here. If you are a college, guest artist, vendor, sponsor, alumni, potential college intern, a chaperone who wants to volunteer, food truck, or know someone who is, share this information with them. We would love to see all of you Jan 9th-11th in Tysons Corner with us! See the newsletter checklist below!

Nominate your peers, community supporters, and administrators for our VTF adult awards this month. The deadline is 12/1/2024. Nomination Form

I wanted to let you know about this workshop that I’m excited to be hosting in November. Accessibility in the arts has never been more important and particularly in physical theatre. Monty Davis has been on the forefront of this field and is bringing this virtual workshop to the Noble Blades. I’ve had the opportunity to take this class in the past and always find new and important ways to engage with it. If you have the time, we’d love to have you join us!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Details are below!

Working with Disabled and Chronically Ill Performers and Students

Nov 12, 2024, 7pm-9pm EST

Taught by Montgomery Davis

A class dedicated to the foundational language, skills, and techniques of listening, communicating, and adjusting for any performer who comes into your space. We will also work on giving space to brainstorm different scenarios.

Class Level: Open

Learn more at NobleBlades.org/wokshops

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

You’re Invited to A Conversation with Tony Award-Winning Producer Robin Gorman Newman

Moderated by Judith Balkin, Chairwoman of the NYU Alumni in Arts and Entertainment Network, Robin will share her insider knowledge and experience, including her unexpected path to producing, what it takes to become a producer, how she chooses projects, how shows make it to Broadway, what theatre investors look for, the upcoming show season, theatre incubators, and more. She will also be happy to answer questions.

REGISTER

Thursday, November 21, 2024

6:30 PM–7:30 PM
Eastern Time

Online Via Zoom

Registrants will receive an email with a link to join the event.

Hi all,

Please have your students submit their scholarship and college audition student event applications. We have over 40 colleges coming, many of which are hoping to audition students. We want to give them a good turnout so they want to return again. Here is the link for all student events and instructions in the newsletter below as a reminder.

Join us next summer for the most amazing shared teacher experience! Forget traditional PDs, this is a lesson sharathon, teachers sharing best strategies with teachers, bonding, lesson planning, and more! Add more to your teacher toolbox and join us in August! We are looking for presenters. Consider proposing a topic! Here is a sample of our model lesson plan. Email Addie: executivedirector@vathespian.org or prolearning@vathespian.org with your interest in teaching a session or two! More information coming soon!

Consider Booktix or Ludus for your ticketing programs. Work through our referrals so we get a kickback to further more student opportunities in VA at the festival and beyond!

Virginia Thespians are excited to announce a continued partnership with BookTix Online Ticketing! Many of our schools already use BookTix for their ticketing & fundraising needs. By partnering with BookTix, VA Thespians receive a percentage of all sales which goes directly into creating programs for your students! When you use BookTix, you not only make ticketing simpler for your box office, families & patrons, you are also giving back to VA Thespians. BookTix has committed to helping us grow in many ways, including sponsorship, education opportunities & more! Please use our affiliate link to sign up for a demonstration of their robust system & see for yourself:

CLICK HERE

Join us for an informational webinar on September 5th at 7pm about "Building & Marketing Your Upcoming Season." Here's the link for the webinar. https://meeting.zoho.com/meeting/register?sessionId=1017286171

We're thrilled to continue our partnership with Virginia Thespians, helping your community shine with the best in ticketing, our new volunteer management, collections feature, and more! At Ludus, we're all about streamlining your theatre operations—from easy ticket sales to coordinating your amazing volunteers. Plus, stay tuned for even more exciting updates coming later this year to make your productions run smoother than ever! Learn more at https://hello.ludus.com!

Getting Members Signed Up: Ensure your members sign up using your referral code or partner landing page. This ensures they are automatically assigned to your partner dashboard. We've seen fantastic sign-ups in your area and want to ensure everyone is making the most of their referral codes. Your success is our success! If you would like a webinar, we can schedule one for all contacts or you can inquire yourself.

• Your Referral Code: Ludus.com/VT​
• Your Partner Landing Page: https://www.partners.ludus.com/partners/vt

Product Updates: We continue to add new features and improve existing ones based on your feedback. Recent updates include:

• Volunteer Management: Streamline your volunteer operations with our easy-to-use tool.
• Waitlists: Enable a "Join Waitlist" button on your Events and Classes.
• Direct Forms: Share direct links to forms for collecting information and data.
• Apps: Android and iOS apps are now available!
• Pay Options: Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Apple Wallet are all available. As well as "other" option available for Venmo, etc.
• Collections/Registration updates: Collect payments for member fees, trips, registrations, and more.
• Branding: Fully customizable areas within Ludus to reflect your organization's branding.
• Ticket Transfer: No more having to hold tickets for someone, you can easily transfer it to another phone # or email!

Goochland HS alumni, Tevin Davis is an actor and was a cast member on the last season of Survivor on CBS. He is also likely coming to VTF this year!

Tevin is a Richmond-based actor, director, artist, etc. "'This island's mine.' Those are some of the first words spoken by Caliban in The Tempest, a role that actor Tevin Davis recently played before speaking with me. The 24-year-old is bringing that attitude from page to the Survivor stage, making his first trip out of the United States a memorable one. He's used to making wins out of losses, discovering his passion for acting after the death of his idol Whitney Houston. More recently, Tevin lost his father, then was told shortly after he would be on Survivor. So he aims again to turn devastation into motivation, and with his exuberance and zeal, it's curtains for the competition." - Parade.com

FALL TIMELINE:

All applications/forms are live online now!

Nov 1 - One-Act Deadline

Nov 15 - Late Registration

Nov 15 - One-Act Rights Required/ Commitments completed

Dec 2 - Registration Closes

Stay tuned for unique student experiences this year!

Check our social media accounts for EdTA, our parent organization or for VA Thespians for recent reminders and updates. Get more resources, learn more about International Thespian Society, and more! The remaining information below is a friendly reminder from previous newsletters. Follow us on Instagram: @vathespians

Email: executivedirector@vathespian.org
Website: https://www.vathespian.org/mission.html
Location: Winchester, VA, USA
Phone: 703-554-3416
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VirginiaThespians
Twitter: @thespians1

Teachers:

-Fall Expo in MD, Saturday Oct. 19th

• To present: https://bit.ly/2024FallFocusPresenter
• To display for vendors & colleges: https://bit.ly/24ExpoFloor
• To register for colleges: https://chesapeake.usitt.org/store
• To register for secondary: https://bit.ly/24MTEAFallFocus

-Fall National Alliance for Musical Theatre - NAMT Conference Oct. 22-23rd

-CA Edu. Theatre Association fall conference Oct. 24-27th

Students/ Schools:

-VTA Oct 23-27th in Richmond, VA

-VTF Jan 9-11th, 2025 for our 55th season! Stay tuned for more info!

-Potential fall event, more information coming soon!

Use the most up-to-date logos , colors, fonts, etc. for a refresh and to get your branding up to speed with our new logos. Break a leg on fall auditions, productions, one act competitions, ITS inductions, first quarters, and more. Let us know how we can help support you this year!

Did you hear we have a Virginia Thespians Alumni Facebook group? Consider passing this along to your graduating seniors. So far, it is an inspiring network of over 300 professionals, who can be valuable resources for your students beyond high school. These are previous Thespians who remember what it is like to be in their shoes and many of which are happy to serve as mentors. We are creating an alumni board to also fundraise resources for students going to festival, bring in more alumni guest artists, and more! If you are an alumni, consider joining it yourself! We have many more plans in store for the alumni to partner with us to support the current as well as future generations of Virginia Thespians! Join us today!

Here is an easy step-by-step checklist for spring inductions. Use these materials as you see fit!

1. Hold an interest meeting. Ask- Who is interested in becoming inducted into ITS?

2. Share out the point application (your own copy) for students to complete with their past and current theatrical experiences for certain point values.

3. Have students fill out the Member Google form, (your own copy) for the exact information you need to collect to put them into the official ITS/ EdTA system, and pay $35 for the one-time membership fee, which lasts them a lifetime. (More materials at the bottom of the newsletter to promote and explain ITS.)

4. Hold inductions. Here is a sample outline to use. You can create your own rituals, traditions, or if you are in a pinch, it can be less than 30 minutes before school starts or before a rehearsal for example.

5. Log into your myedta account to input all of your new inductees.

6. Pay the lump sum as the director, if your students didn't pay EdTA directly. Our suggestion is to collect the money as you typically do for school events, work with your bookkeeper or boosters to cut one check to EdTA to keep it simple.

7. Hold an end of year or semester celebration to hand out the new goodies when they are delivered to the school! Here is the Thespian store for graduation regalia. If you are trying to save money, cords can be found on Amazon too.

Don't have a troupe yet? Read more about the benefits and process here! You do not need a minimum number of students now to activate/ reactivate your troupe. Get started today! Other resources on inductions from EdTA. Want a 2nd troupe director or someone to go in your place to Thespian events? Consider an Associate Troupe Director! Have you renewed your troupe for the year? If not, follow these instructions. This needs to be done annually for your troupe to stay active.

1. How to renew? Troupe directors, log in to your member portal at myedta.schooltheatre.org

2. Click the "My Orders" button.

3. Renew by Oct 15th for this year!

*Hold fall inductions, so your students get inducted, so they get the discounts for all events and, so they can qualify to move onto nationals with their Thespys. Deadline to be inducted is around 4/15.

Here is a Google Slides PPT about Thespians to encourage students to join or convince Admin about the benefits of having an International Thespians Honors Society troupe or coming to VTF.

Here is a Festival Guide for students or new troupe directors.