The 2010 Thespian Festival swung into action for its first full day on Tuesday, starting early with multiple audition sessions and ending with the first big main stage show, followed by a dance that ran until close to curfew.

 

The Festival’s showcase schedule of high school productions actually got underway Monday evening, with Arab (Alabama) High School’s production of Little Women. Left to right: Chelsea Green, Will Vickers, Sara King, Lauren Crider, and Chelsea Kircher.

 

Little Women: Chelsea Green and Will Vickers.

 

Across the campus Tuesday morning, Thespians were auditioning for college admissions...

 

...for the National Individual Events Showcase...

 

...and for roles in the Thespian Playworks script development workshops, where four companies of actors will work all week on getting new student-written plays up on their feet.

 

In the Festival’s Tech Challenge, teams of students spent the afternoon in a test of their production skills, including such tasks as sewing on a button...

 

...tying reliable knots...

 

...and hanging and focusing a lighting instrument.

 

Troupe 4982 of Bradford High School, Kenosha, Wisconsin, got the Lied Center main stage schedule rolling with two performances of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

 

How to Succeed in Business: J. Pierrepont Finch (Claudio Perrone) and Rosemary Pilkington (Maddie Hailer) get to know one another.

 

 

The Festival’s second full day brought two powerful ensemble shows on the main stage and, in the afternoon, nonstop workshop action across the UNL campus.

 

Sarah Ceschin as Delores the Waitress explains that "It’s An Art," in Working, performed by Tremper High School, Kenosha, Wisconsin.

 

 

An aspiring theatre technician talks to college representatives.

 

Motivated bodies were moving bright and early in Julie York Coppens’ Broadway Workout.

Workshops provided an opportunity to clown around with Jon Joyce...

 

...and partner up for ballroom dancing with Paul Mockovak.

 

Tomball (Texas) High School performed A Piece of My Heart on the Lied stage Wednesday evening.

 

Piece of My Heart.

 

 

Two popular musicals and two modern American classic plays made for a rich day of theatre at the Thespian Festival Thursday.

 

Randolph High School, Huntsville, Alabama, brought a production of Edward Albee’s tense drama The Zoo Story, in which a chance conversation on a park bench...

 

...erupts into violence. Blake Murray played Jerry and Austin Bryan was Peter.

 

Olathe (Kansas) High School’s production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

 

Charlie Brown: Matt Rich as Schroeder celebrates "Beethoven’s Day."

 

Workshops continued through the afternoon Thursday. Above, working on a costume sketch in Terry McGonigle’s drawing workshop.

 

Accompanist Danny Baker elucidates some of the fine points of audition performance in a workshop led by Jason Daunter and Brian Curl.

 

Other students took advantage of the opportunity to meet with representatives of the fifty college and university theatre programs in the Festival exhibit area.

 

Sylvan Hills High School, Sherwood, Arkansas, brought its production of August Wilson’s Fences. DeAndre Lewis as Troy and Terreon Cole as Jim Bono.

 

Troy and his son Cory, played by Joshua Molden, in the play’s inevitable, violent climax.

 

Freddy (Sean Zortman) dreams of "Great Big Stuff" in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, produced by Central York (Pennsylvania) High School.

 

Scoundrels: John Feldman as Lawrence and Emily Bentzel as Jolene.

 

Scoundrels: Alesia Knott as Christine sings "Here I Am."

 

Scoundrels: Freddy and Lawrence are glad to be "Dirty Rotten."

 

 

There were musicals on the main stage on Friday morning and evening, and in the afternoon another two sessions of the Festival’s 120-odd workshop topics.

 

Pippin, presented by Troupe 931, Cypress Creek High School in Houston, Texas.

 

Pippin: Lauren Harsany played Catherine and Tyler Galindo was in the title role.

 

In workshops, Michael Lee demonstrated the subtle essence of movement...

 

...while a student worked on musical improv in a session led by Ed Reggi.

 

State College (Pennsylvania) Area High School presented Sympathy Jones, a playful secret agent musical written by former student Masi Asare. The good guys, Henry Greene (Chris Perini) and Sympathy Jones (Ashley Lope) prepare to face...

 

...their arch-enemies, Kitty Hawk (Rebekah Sharp) and Tick Tock (Seth Cornwall).

 

 

In its final day, the Festival featured the National Individual Events Showcase, staged readings of the four Thespian Playworks pieces, and a rollicking production of Urinetown by the Denver School of the Arts.

 

Danielle Grays, Parkersburg (West Virginia) High School, singing "Everything I Know" in the National Individual Events Showcase.

 

NIES: Scott Trout and Zach Eulberg of Poudre High School, Ft. Collins, Colorado, in a duet mime performance.

 

NIES: "Freak Flag, " Prestonwood Christian Academy, Plano, Texas.

 

NIES: Tasha Gerel, Clements High School, Sugar Land, Texas, performing a monologue.

 

Drew Simon and Hillary Ruth Testa in the staged reading of Thespian Playworks finalist In Facebook Wii Trust, by Lien Le of Nolan Catholic High School, Fort Worth, Texas.

 

Playworks: Splinters, by Megan Bradley, Dubuque (Iowa) Senior High School, with Cypress Staelin as Leyla.

 

Playworks: Andalusia Masad and Matthew Theriault in The Porcelain Vase, by Christopher Poore, General William J. Palmer High School, Colorado Springs.

 

Playworks: A Backwards Fairytale, by Allie Lehnhoff, Lee’s Summit (Missouri) Community Christian School. Rachel Dilliplane played the Princess and Joey Panelli was Prince Number Two.

 

The final main stage production of the 2010 Festival was Denver School of the Arts’ Urinetown. Sarah Reichardt (at center, with plumber’s helper) played Pennywise.

 

Urinetown: Jake Brash as Bobby Strong and Sarah Harmon as Hope.

 

Urinetown: Alexander Moll Johnson playwed Caldwell B. Cladwell.