On Friday, October 6th, 25 students from the visual and performing arts department went to the Maine Thespian festival in Gorham at the University of Southern Maine. This is the first time that Kennebunk High School students have attended this festival, which brings together 12 schools from the state of Maine to participate in a series of workshops, including Stage Combat, Zombie Makeup, and Shakespeare for Actors. Students also had the opportunity to compete in all areas of theater such as a monologue presentation, costume design, or script writing in hopes of winning a Thespy, or International Thespian Excellence Award.. These demonstrations are judged and if the student receives the highest score, known as a “superior,” they receive a Thespy. Along with the workshops and Thespys, there is also a $1,000 scholarship awarded to one student.

 Kennebunk excelled at this year’s festival. Two Kennebunk seniors went for Thespys this year, and many competed for the scholarship. Susan Pollard competed in the Stage Management category and Crow Lowry competed in the costume design category. Both won their categories and will be competing at the national competition in June, which is in Indiana. Senior Erin McNeilly won the $1,000 scholarship. Kennebunk swept the competition and won all the awards given at the festival. Susan and Crow are the first students from Maine in five years to bring Kennebunk to an International Thespian Society competition. This is a huge accomplishment for the students, but also the Kennebunk High School theater department because technically they have the best high school Stage Manager and Costume designer in the state of Maine. All the students who went to the festival had a blast and can’t wait to attend next year.