Los Al Thespians go to Nebraska

Last week, 22 Los Al Thespians headed to Lincoln, Nebraska for the International Thespian Festival, along with 3700 other theater students, teachers, and teaching artists from all over the world.

We had an AMAZING week!

We had students who had never been on an airplane, students who have never been away from their families for this long, and students who had never performed at this level.

In addition to the amazing things that Los Al accomplished last week, we saw mainstage shows from schools all over the country, and were able to participate in a huge number of workshops that ranged from dance, to writing, directing, to improv, design to navigating the college world, all while staying in a dorm, eating in a college cafeteria, and meeting new people.

On Tuesday, the Griffin Puppet Players performed Pyramus and Thisbe as the CA Chapter Select at 9pm in the Howell Theater.  Not only did we have an amazingly receptive audience, and received a standing ovation, but in attendance were the Puppetry Teaching Artist, Aretta Baumgartner, the representative from LAMDA, the owner of Musical Theater Songs, and a number of other teaching artists.  They all waited after the performance to congratulate the cast on an INCREDIBLE performance.

Also, on Tuesday and Wednesday, a number of our students presented the Individual Events that received a Superior ranking at the State Festival in March.  Critiqued at a higher level, our students did Los Al proud, bringing home three Superiors for Monologues (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) and Duet Musical (Bridget DeMaria and Sydney DeMaria).  Receiving a Superior at Nationals is incredibly difficult, and we are so proud that all of our performers received VERY high marks.

Throughout the week, many of our students auditioned for over 40 colleges all over the U.S., many programs considered to be the top schools in theatre.  Our students received 65 callbacks for 38 different colleges and universities.  Below is the breakdown of schools and how many of our students were called back for each one:

Texas Christian University- 2
Loyola University New Orleans- -6
Santa Fe University of the Arts- 2
St. Mary's Minnesota-4
Lindenwood University-2
DePaul University-2
Illinois Wesleyan-2
American Academy of Dramatic Arts -4
American Musical and Dramatic Academy-1
Marquette University-4
Miami University, Ohio-3
New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts-2
The New School-2
Drake University-2
University of the Arts, Philadelphia- 1
Missouri Valley College-2
Midland University-1
Utah State University-1
University of Evansville-1
Louisiana State University-1
William Jewell College- 1
Wake Forest University-1
Montclair State University-1
Otterbein University-1
University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music-1
Viterbo University-1
University of Nebraska Lincoln-1
University of Houston-1
Fairleigh Dickenson University-1
University of Minnesota/Guthrie-1
University of Oklahoma-1
St. Louis University-2
Nebraska Wesleyan-1
Hastings University-2
Southern Methodist University-1
Savannah College of Art and Design-1
Theatre of Arts Los Angeles-1
New York Film Academy-1

In ADDITION to that amazing list, one of our students was offered a spot in the BFA Acting program for CCM (University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music), ranked as a TOP acting program in the country, as well as receiving a lucrative callback for the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Training Program.  Another student received an email from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia (another top-ranked program) asking them that based on their audition, if they would consider coming to U of A.

Other programs that aren't discussed above showed huge interest in many of our students, and we could not be more proud of them as they begin their journey to finding the right college program for them.

All of our students represented Los Alamitos with grace, poise, and style, and should be congratulated!

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