Sent 3/3/26: 🤪 Nine Days to 2026 State Thespian Festival! Full Schedule & Updates Inside! 🤪

Hello everyone! 

We are in the 10-day countdown to State!  Reminder, all the information in this email is now visible at Festival Central should you need to access it later.  We have UPDATES!

1. Remind!  All Troupe Directors need to sign up for the State Teacher Remind.  This is our most direct way to blast out to you emergency info and other changes and updates during State.  Do this now so it's done!  Send a text to 81010 with this message: @watf26

2. Festival Schedule (also on Festival Central)

• • Schedule is UPDATED with two new tabs:

    1. 800 Pike Theatre District Schedule: all Mainstages, One Acts, WIPS, Lip Syncs, Honor Troupes, Theater Tours, and more.  Use Ctrl F to search your school name to highlight everything you're doing where!

    2. Scheduled Programs by School List: you will see your dinner time and Thespy showcase assignment as well as everything else in one place here.

  • Unless you previously communicated a schedule need and do not see it, we can not make adjustments to schedule assignments.  Please let us know ASAP if you have a double booking!!

  • Like last year, we will be assigning you/your chaperones a session to help count heads in workshops one of the sessions. We'll give you the details when you check in!

3. Historic Theater Tours!  We are excited to share that ALL 94 Troupes have been assigned a behind-the-scenes tour of either The 5th Avenue Theatre, Paramount Theater, or Union Arts Center!  Note, due to tour guide availability and capacity, only half of each troupe will be able to go on the tour--the other half gets an extra workshop slot or chance to see another Mainstage show!  You will see how many spots your troupe gets in the Scheduled Programs by School List tab of the Festival Schedule.  We suggest prioritizing your Tech Students followed by Seniors followed by Juniors etc. but you can choose who goes on the tour however you like.

• Theater Tour Logistics:

1. At least ONE adult Chaperone must take one of your tour spots.

2. Meet your students going on the tour at your Troupe's assigned Place in Hall 4AB at the beginning of your Session so you can walk to the theater together--do NOT arrange to meet your students at the theater!

3. 7-10minutes into your session, arrive at your assigned theater and gather with the other troupes on your tour outside under the marquee

4. Each tour will be split into three subgroups.  Help the tour guides ensure each subgroup has at least one adult chaperone.  It's okay if your students are split into different groups at this point!

5. Tours will be about one hour of the 75-minute session, leaving time before the end to re-group under the marquee and walk back to the Convention Center together before the 15-minute transition.

4. What about the workshops?  The ONLY place workshop details are published are in the Eventsential App.  Share the following with ALL students and chaperones so they can build their custom schedule NOW:

• The festival schedule and room assignments can change on a whim.  Please DOWNLOAD the app, Eventsential, from your phone's app store and once inside, search Washington State Thespian Festival.

• Convention Center Maps are also coming soon to Eventsential!

5. Food!  You can see the menus here.  Note that while we have gluten-free, pork-free, dairy-free, vegan, and vegetarian options (and the entire menu is intentionally nut-free), all food is prepared in kitchens that handle these allergens.  Plan accordingly!  No large-scale outside food (i.e. booster Costco wagon) allowed into the Convention Center but personal snacks and meal alternatives are okay.  Bring water bottles!

6. Arrival: Seattle Convention Center - Arch 705 Pike St & PDF of SCC Bus Drop-Off Map & Directions

• • School Check-In: 8:00am-8:55am:

    1. Teacher Sign-In - Must have 2 printed & completed copies of all Health/Consent Forms: one to pass out to your attendees to put in their provided name badges and the other to turn in to us!

    2. Find your designated Place in Hall 4AB, drop bags there if desired

    3. Unbox your shirts, name badges, and pass out any honor pins!

    4. Take any Mainstage/One Act Marathon show items to Chelan 4 (follow signs to 800 Pike Theatre District)

    5. Take Professional Troupe Photo in Atrium & explore SCC if time!

    6. Head up to 6ABC Ballrooms for Opening Ceremonies!

7. Access Needs: Crutches?  Wheelchairs?  Please let us know asap if anyone has mobility issues that may impact your assigned Historic Theater Tour. We will also have several Quiet Rooms available in different areas of SCC which are also open to those observing Ramadan or anyone needing a sensory break.

8. Lip Sync Battle, Backstage Challenge, & Honor Troupes: The deadline to confirm your participation in Lip Sync Battle is today--please see separate email with directions or reply to that email to back out.  If you registered for Backstage Challenge '26 and need to back out, reply to this email.  A note about Honor Troupes: we have ordered trophies for the level you applied for.  Should your troupe earn a lower level, we will ship you a new trophy separately.  

9. Late Nite Activities - All are welcome and encouraged to participate in Late Nite Thursday night!  If your school is local and commuting home and you'd like to stay for some or leave early, that's okay too.  Remind your performers that the Thespy Fringe Stage will be OPEN at Late Nite for them to perform an encore of their Superior Thespy from Regionals!  For musical Thespys, don't forget your downloaded backing track.  A music playing device will be provided but please have a 2.5mm jack port or bring the dongle to connect to an Aux cable.  Your Superior Tech Portfolios are also invited to be displayed in the Superior Tech Thespy tables in Hall 4F.  Bring them first thing Thursday morning!

10. Musical Work-In-Progresses (WIPS) - Reminder this absolutely must be timed and cut to 10 minutes or less!  Bring your own downloaded music.  A music playing device will be provided but please have a 2.5mm jack port or bring the dongle to connect to an Aux cable or you're welcome to bring your own as a backup.  Rehearse your WIP for a 18'x32' platform 32" off the floor with escape steps SL and SR.

Look for one more round up a day or two before State Next week!

Sincerely,

Ben Stuart & Greg Pschirrer

Co-Chapter Directors

Washington State Thespians

www.wathespians.org/