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).

💎💚 Last call TODAY for late registration! 💚💎 Join us Jan 9-11th for #vtf2025! Stay tuned for more exciting announcements!💎 See headliners below & more information about one act tickets, etc.

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 last year's VTF 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! The deadline is today for the LAST call to attend!

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

Looking for a certain vendor to help your next show, enhance your department skills, or more? Ask us for our preferred vendors and check many of them out at VTF this year! Stop by the vendor fair to meet tour companies, program/playbill services, fundraising resources, and more! There will be over 70 colleges and vendors at festival selling swag, giving away freebies, sharing their knowledge, and so much more. Go shopping, network, and enjoy! Friday at 3:30 pm, while students are in workshops, teachers/school staff have the chance for free mocktails/apps/prizes and chat with many of our vendor fair participants!

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! PRICES GO UP AFTER VTF!

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

As you wind down your fall shows & activities, now's the time to start thinking about

ticketing for 2025! Did you know our partner BookTix can get you set up before the

year is out so you can start selling right away after winter break? They recently debuted

their brand new fundraising suite, giving you additional options for generating revenue

for your program! If you're interested in more info, they're hosting a quick 20-min info

session followed by a Q&A on 12/16/24. Sign up here: https://www.booktix.com/book-

a-demo-options/

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!

Custom Clickable Playbills & Rosters

Experience the future of event planning with our digital playbills, event programs, and rosters. Say goodbye to cumbersome paper copies and embrace the convenience of an interactive digital solution. A solution that is also FREE to your organization.

1. No App Download Required - The beauty of a Browser App is that your users do not have to download anything. Users can scan a QR Code and immediately be in the right place to view your program content.
2. Easy to Navigate - Simplified screens and large buttons allow users to easily find all the information they need. From maps to cast bios, sports schedules to booster club, sponsor ads & more. It's all there!
3. Powerful Features -

• Interactive Playbills & Rosters
• Custom Layouts
• Player's Bios and Stats
• QR Code Accessible
• Performance Schedules
• Photo Galleries
• ShoutOut Messages for Players

Get a kickback for you and us at Virginia Thespians to expand more student opportunities, get coupons for your community, and make your playbill/program journey easier!

Danielle Sirinsky holds a BFA in Musical Theatre Performance from the University of Michigan. Danielle has performed & choreographed throughout Chicago, Eastern PA, and Virginia. Favorite professional roles include roles in A Chorus Line and West Side Story. Previously at The Loudoun School of Ballet in VA, as the Director of The Rising Stars Department, she created the Teen Musical Theatre/Broadway Jazz curriculums. She was recently Director of Little Dancer as well as Youth Programming at the Dance Academy of Virginia and now she is a full time instructor at Not Just Dance in Chantilly, VA. A local dance teacher and choreographer, and I love teaching students, especially beginners, how to learn choreography to assist them in any audition scenario.

FALL TIMELINE:

All applications/forms are live online now!

Dec 2 - Registration Closes

Dec 6th-10th One Act ticket codes emailed once you complete the transportation form

Dec 10th- 2025 All-state experience Right Before I Go play virtual auditions due

Dec 23rd Workshops released

Jan 3rd Mainstage Tickets emailed

Jan 9-11th Virginia Thespian Festival 2025!

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:

-VTF 2025 - Jan 9-11th in Tysons Corner, VA

-MD's Thrive '25 - Feb 15th at the U. of MD (see photo)

-NATS Conference Jan 5-8th in Savannah, GA

- KALEIDESCOPE MT regional conference Jan 2nd in NYC

-Ongoing school partnerships with Creative Stages or Signature Theatre

Students/ Schools:

-VTF 2025 - Jan 9-11th in Tysons Corner, VA (stay tuned for our app released with all opportunities)

-Broadway Teaching Group Intensives: Student Summits

• February 15 – 16, 2025
• March 29 – 30, 2025
• April 12 – 13, 2025

-Winter Immersions at Stella Adler (LA or NY, various dates)

-Drama Kids Workshops (many date options)

-Broadway Artist Alliance Winter Workshops - February 15th-17th in NYC

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.