2025 IOWA THESPIAN FESTIVAL

What is the Iowa Thespian Festival?

The Iowa Thespian Festival provides over 1,000 Iowa high school students with a unique opportunity to gather in one place to view, celebrate, critique, refine, and defend theatrical visions. Students will be able to apply the tools and techniques they have learned in the classroom to both performance and technical theatre contests that require oral defense in front of a judge. Students will also have the chance to view three full-length performances within 48 hours, which will provide a means of critiquing production values from a variety of different high school programs. The chance to identify the strengths and weaknesses in other productions helps students learn different techniques to apply to their own performance work.

A unique attribute of the Iowa Thespian Festival is the chance for theatre technicians to work with one another, presenting designs to college professors and learning new skills. This is not something afforded to our quality student technicians in other activities, as most theatre-based activities focus on performance work rather than design work.

Additionally, students may self-select enrichment opportunities. Every student will have the chance to attend two of 30+ workshops taught by high school and college instructors from around the state. Senior students will have the option of auditioning in front of a panel of representatives from a variety of college theatre programs with the chance to earn scholarships for college. Two of Waukee’s students will also be able to attend a Leadership Luncheon, a training program designed for student leaders from each Thespian troupe around the state. 

ANTICIPATED SCHEDULE

Check out a draft of the schedule below:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH
5:45 PM - Depart Waukee (EAT DINNER BEFORE YOU ARRIVE)
8:00 PM - Arrive in Cedar Falls & Check-In at Hotel
8:00 PM - 10:00 PM - Practice Individual Events and Scholarship Auditions

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM - Arrive at University of Northern Iowa
9:30 AM - 12:30 PM - Opening Ceremonies and Mainstage #1: Les Miserables
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM - Iowa Thespian FilmWorks, Lunch, Student Leadership Lunch
2:00 PM - 5:45 PM - Thespy Performances, Tech Challenge, Studio Theatres, STO Candidate Interviews
6:00 PM - 7:45 PM - Dinner
8:00 PM - 10:30 PM - Mainstage #2: Hadestown
10:45 PM - Return to Hotel & Lights Out

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH
9:30 AM – 11:00 AM - College/Thespian Scholarship Auditions
9:30 AM – 11:45 AM - Hall of Fame Presentation, Thespy Showcase, & PlayWorks Staged Reading
12:00 AM - 2:00 PM - Lunch, ImprovWorks
2:00 PM - 4:30 PM - Workshops and Scholarship Callbacks
4:30  PM – 7:00 PM - Mainstage #4: Amélie & Closing Ceremonies
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM- Dinner in Cedar Falls
11:30 PM - Return to Waukee

REGISTRATION

If you would like to attend the 2025 Iowa Thespian Festival, you must follow the steps below to register. There will be three tiers of registration:

• TIER ONE:  August 29 - September 5
  Inducted Thespians

• TIER TWO:  September 8 - 10
  SENIORS Auditioning for College Scholarships & Students Competing in a Thespy Event, Tech Challenge, FilmWorks, ImprovWorks, or PlayWorks

• TIER THREE: September 12
  Students attending as Spectators Only

STEP 1:

Read the IOWA THESPIAN FESTIVAL REGISTRATION PACKET with your parent / guardian(s). It contains vital information and FAQs.

STEP 2:

Fill out this GOOGLE FORM - ONLINE REGISTRATION. (You will need to know if you want to compete in anything to fill this out.)

STEP 3:

Sign & Return the HEALTH FORM & CODE OF CONDUCT. (This must be done with a parent / guardian)

STEP 4:

(Optional) If you are choosing to compete in a Thespy Event, you must also register online through the EdTA portal. More information can be found HERE. See Mr. Jorgensen with questions.

STEP 5:

Return all materials (Health Form & Code of Conduct) to Mr. Jorgensen. 

STEP 6:

Once Mr. Jorgensen has all of your materials, he will provide you with a secret RevTrak payment link. Follow the link to complete your payment. Once the payment goes through, Mr. Jorgensen will email you that your registration is complete! (If you have questions about payment, please contact njorgensen@waukeeschools.org.)

NOTE: There are only 40 spot available. Students will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.