Osbourn recently debuted a new society, adding more diversity to the OHS list of clubs and organizations. International Thespian Society (ITS) is an honor society made for middle and high school students. It inspires students in Theatre to continue and get life benefits throughout their lives.
Osbourn’s International Thespian Society is an up-and-coming club that was selected by Osbourn’s Theatre teacher, Mr. Topher Scofield. “In order to be eligible to join, as an honor society, there are some requirements. Students who participate in theatrical shows, whether in school theater programs or in community theater programs, are eligible. There’s a point breakdown, and you’ve got to put in a certain number of hours to get a certain number of points. And once you get to that point total, then you are eligible to be inducted into society,” said Scofield.
This society also has benefits, even outside of high school and later in life. The people in this society can have access to special opportunities such as scholarships, festivals, and chances for leadership roles (like president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, historian, clerk, and publicity). “The National Thespian Society offers access to workshops, theatrical workshops, for both performers and technical theatrical students, as well as directors and stage managers. The website itself and the organization that sponsors the website. They’ve got several resources, videos that you can go to and look at. It’s constantly being updated with articles to learn from. Also, they’ve got workshops throughout the year. The different regions have workshops. The one coming up that I’m planning for our group to go to is in January. It’s a full weekend, a Friday evening through Sunday, that has performances, workshops, and vendors. It’s just a great way for thespians to be able to see junior theater for children, thespians, and high school thespians to be able to see all the different variety of options within the theater world,” said Scofield.
Throughout the year, this society goes on trips to theaters, looks for fundraisers for the productions, etc.. The International Thespian Society is trying to connect with many different theaters around Virginia and into DC in order to have more opportunities for this society to show the members what they can do. “This is my first year running it, officially. So we’ll be putting together electing our representatives, and then discussing some options throughout the year. We’ll be looking at fundraising to help out with theatrical productions here, ways that the members of the society can help with publicity for the shows that we’re doing, and look at opportunities to do theatrical work in the northern Virginia area, up into DC. It’s a lot of stuff that we’re still kind of figuring out together, with it being kind of a fresh club with me. It did exist here a few years ago under one of the previous theater teachers, but it had lapsed for the last couple of years before I got here. So it’s exciting to have these options back,” said Scofield.
“The good news is, as you continue, it’s twofold. One, most of the people who are doing the thespian society are students who’ve already been involved in theater and are already interested in theater. There’s sort of that auto-motivates themselves. There’s a lot of internal or intrinsic motivation there. But on the other side of it is, if you continue working with the Thespian Society and keep doing shows, you’ll continue earning points. We talked about earning points to be inducted into it. You keep earning points, and that ends up giving you ranks, and you get it, it’s kind of bragging rights. I’m collecting more points because I’m working on more shows. And there are pins and badges and certificates, different awards that speak to it. And those all, everything about society, including the ranks you’ve gotten within it, those all can go on college and job resumes, moving forward,” continued Scofield.
There are many different opinions on this society, such as influencing what they want to do in college, to the biggest reason they all bond together. Advice for balancing everything is also necessary in order to get everything done and make sure you are capable of attending and knowing what to do at what time.
“I would say that it definitely has influenced what I want to do in college, like a club in this or maybe even a side hustle job in doing theater because I do enjoy it a lot,” said sophomore Jade Cedeno.
“I think the way theatre brings students together is the shared interest; we all want to be here. To be honest, my friends and the people who surround me are the biggest reason I’ve been doing it for so long. Sure, I love performing, but it wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable without them,” said senior Ash Stoner
“It’s tricky, but I try to stay balanced by prioritizing the importance of my commitments. Schoolwork will always come first for me in terms of what I find important, so I try to get my work done right away. Thankfully, our theatre department is very understanding of the fact that we are all students. If I’m working on homework during rehearsals when I’m not needed for a scene, it’s never an issue. Then, after my classes, rehearsals come next in order of importance. I try my best to plan my schedule so that I don’t miss any rehearsals for other commitments. For ITS, the balancing has been very easy, as there’s no way for ITS meetings and rehearsals to conflict if they’re run by the same people,” said junior, Brynna Thaxter.
