This weekend, Pennsylvania high schoolers across the state joined together at Central York High School to take part in one of the largest theatre festivals that is held at the state level. They watched six mainstage performances, up to six one acts, and multiple IE and scholarship winners perform in front of 1,000 people. We laughed uncontrollably through Almost, Maine and sobbed during Next to Normal, and finally Peter and the Starcatcher caused audience members to do both at the same time.
During this celebration of friendship and theatre, I realized that as a senior, I would no longer be allowed to attend the Pennsylvania State Thespian Conference after five years of counting down the days until I got to spend three whole days surrounded by people that just understood me on a level I can only explain through another article. Looking around, it dawned on me that I'm a senior, and that I'll be graduating in six months, and that as a senior, it was my last time to fully enjoy what I have done for almost half of my life - sing, dance, and act.
So, in remembrance of all that the Thespian Conference has done for me, I decided to put together a list of things that I will miss the most.
1. Getting to take a break from your entire world.
When you're at States, you don't even realize that time is actually passing you by when you're watching a guy in a dress pretend to vomit on everyone. You don't think about all of the homework and makeup work you need to do when Tony Lumpkin is messing with his cousin and family for two and a half hours. The Thespian Conference focuses so heavily on theatre and performance and even the technical aspects of shows, that nothing else really matters whilst you're there.
2. Spending time with people that are just like you.
Even if it's just for three days, spending twelve hours in a space with a thousand theatre kids that all have a passion and love for what they spend countless hours on is priceless. Not many people have a place that they are able to go every year and be completely and unapologetically themselves, or at least while they're still in high school. The Thespian Conference is a way to break kids out of their shell and get to see them do the thing that they love to do.
3. Going on Twitter and laughing about the memes.
This year, a hashtag #pamemefest16 sprang up once the official hashtag of the Pennsylvania Thespian Conference was deemed #pathesfest16. During the conference, and during intermission and between shows, the attendees would post ridiculous pictures and captions garnering likes and retweets that normally would only get a handful of each.
4. Spending two nights with forty members of your theatre family.
Nothing bonds people together more than sharing a bed and a hotel room, and a breakfasting room with not only cranberry juice, there is an assortment of different foods otherwise forgotten about by the average high school student.
5. Watching really, really good plays and musicals
Some of the shows at the Thespian Conference broke me emotionally, and with others I was dying of laughter. Even though each had their differences, all of them were simply good, no matter how one looked at it.
6. Saying goodbye to all of your senior friends...including yourself
The Thespian Conference was always a place that I felt that I could go year after year and spend a few days with my closest friends having good memories that I would always remember. These trips changed who I was as a person, and as an actress as well. My friends and I will look back on the things we did her many years from now and laugh even harder than we did while in attendance.
Overall, the Thespian Conference will be a trip that I will dearly miss once the time comes to move on to college and everything that that adventure has in store for me. To the International Thespian Conference, and the Pennsylvania Thespians, not to mention all of the people at my school that work countless hours to make this trip possible, thank you for all of the late nights, tears, memes, and the laughs that I have been lucky to have for the past four years of my life.
