The 2024 International Thespian Festival kicks off June 24 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Along with Main Stage performances from thespian troupes across the country, master classes, college auditions, and more, this year's festival includes performances from a host of Broadway favorites.
Scheduled to appear during the week are Zachary Noah Piser (KPOP); Ebony Blake and John Skelley (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child); Kate Anderson, Timothy Allen McDonald, Elyssa Samsel, and Jodi Picoult (Between the Lines); Duncan Sheik, Steven Sater, and Jessie Nelson (Alice by Heart); Carly Hughes (Chicago); Matt Cox (Witches!? In Salem?!); TJ Young (Reel Times at Somerset High); and Adam Szymkowicz, Masi Asare, and John Simpkins (Marian, or the True Tale of Robin Hood).
Piser, Blake, and Skelley will co-host the festival's opening ceremony, with Krauss appearing courtesy of Broadway Plus and Blake and Skelley courtesy of Broadway Licensing. The Between the Lines team will support their musical's ITF Main Stage debut, along with participating in a discussion and Q&A with Music Theatre International about the new musical. Sheik, Sater, and Nelson will support the Main Stage debut of their musical Alice by Heart, and will host their own discussion with MTI about the show. Hughes will host an audition coaching workshop, part of a partnership with ETF and the Princess Grace Foundation. Young will be workshopping his new play Reel Times at Somerset High throughout the week, under the auspices of Stage Partners. He'll also lead a playwriting intensive in partnership with the Dramatists Guild. Syzmkowicz, Asare, and Simpkins will be working with students on a staged reading of their new musical Marian, under the auspices of Concord Theatricals.
Main Stage performances include Silent Sky from Arroyo Grande High School in Arroyo Grande, California; Between the Lines from Bradford High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin; Kinky Boots from Denver School of the Arts in Denver, Colorado; Indecent from Episcopal School of Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Alice By Heart from Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado; Into the Woods from Hoboken High School in Hoboken, New Jersey; Rent: School Edition from Rock Ridge Performing Arts in Ashburn, Virginia; My Heart Says Go from Warsaw Community High School in Warsaw, Indiana; and Disney's Frozen: The Broadway Musical from Wauwatosa West High School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
Students attending the festival are able to attend hundreds of interactive workshops, a college fair, and auditions for more than 60 colleges. The festivities also include performances of up to 17 one-act productions nominated by more than 40 chapters of the Educational Theatre Association, parent organization to ITF. The week will culminate in the International Thespian Excellence Awards, or the Thespys, recognizing the highest level of achievement in school theatre.
Visit ITF.SchoolTheatre.org.
