The TVS Middle School Thespian Troupe #89688, founded a little over three years ago by Dr. Will Eyerly, had another milestone State festival competition this past week at Florida State Junior Thespians in Orlando. The troupe joined thousands of other top performers selected out of District competitions last fall from the 12 districts throughout the state. They hit the ground running first thing Thursday morning, January 12, with workshops and rehearsals followed by a packed opening ceremony that evening.
Friday morning saw a Village School first. The Village School was selected by the judges at the Fall District 6 Jr. Thespian competition to represent District 6 in the State One Acts. This is a tremendous honor and the first time ever that TVS has submitted a one-act play into the competition! The troupe reported to the 2,643-seat Chapin Theatre in the Convention Center for an 8:00 a.m. stage manager meeting. After a fifteen-minute orientation to the stage, lighting, and sound systems, the troupe was dismissed until their allotted performance time. At 10:00 a.m. they were escorted to their dressing rooms and at 10:30 they took the stage to perform their play "The Struggles" by Kendra Thomas in front of a huge audience. The one-act featured a cast with Camille Kuhl, Carly Chapman, Daniel Tice, Grayson Leadbetter, Arabella Raucci, Mazzy Meyer, Savannah Paupore, & Sophia McKoan. The Tech Crew was Mason Loschiavo, Scarlett Paupore, Lauryn Stuben, & Addie Stephen. By 11:15 a.m. they were back in their dressing room where the lead judge spent 10 minutes providing feedback on their performance. She awarded the cast and crew a perfect 30 out of 30 points and the play received the top rating of SUPERIOR. Additionally, two of our students received medals for special awards. Camille Kuhl received an ALL-STAR acting medal for her performance as Megan in "The Struggles" and Mason Loschiavo received an ALL-STAR crew medal for his superior work as stage manager for the one-act.
On Saturday, the 24 TVS Thespians competed in the Individual Event portion of the festival with the maximum allowed 12 Individual Event performance slots. Each Technical and Performance room has three judges who score the performances and presentations on a 30-point rubric that equates to a final adjudication of either Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent, or Superior. Awards are given to performances rated Excellent or Superior. In the end, all 13 (including the one-act) of our hardworking TVS Thespians' events received awards with ten earning Superior and three earning Excellent. Here are the results of the rest of the individual events and categories:
