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On the weekend of Feb. 26-27, Tupelo High School thespians attended the Mississippi State Thespian Conference, or Thescon, in Pearl. THS students competed in one-act performances, individual events performing songs and monologues, and also participated in workshops where they learned various types of dance and acting methods.

“Thescon is important because it allows our thespians to become connected with other thespians around the state,” explained Allana Austin, head of the THS theatre department. “They could meet their best friend or perhaps even their college roommate during Thescon.”

Tupelo competed with an edited “one act” taken from the show “Seven Deadly Sins” by Thornton Wilder, which they had performed in its entirety in November at THS. From the play’s seven scenese, the two chosen to be performed at Thescon were sloth and envy.

“I really enjoyed working with accelerated students and pushing them to explore various time periods and character types,” director Trisha Pate said. “I’m very proud of them.”

“Seven Deadly Sins” competed with six other one acts from various schools around the state.

Each one act has one actor to be chosen for the all-state cast. Tupelo’s cast member was senior Hollie Trent. Trent was chosen to participate in the all-state cast for her role as the elderly Mrs. Beattie in the scene envy.

“I was extremely surprised, since I am a senior, that I won,” Trent said, “I felt pretty thankful for everything that my theatre teachers and castmates have done for me. The entire assembly then sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, which was pretty cool!”

Multiple students also participated in individual events, or I.E.s. I.E.s are put into five different categories, solo acting, duet acting, solo singing, duet singing and group singing. Each I.E. is scored from a level of one to five, with five being the best and one being the worst. To score a five means the performance was superior. Superiors are honored in a special ceremony on the Saturday morning of Thescon.

THS had two superiors this year, junior Emma Crockett and junior Emma Gousset, both in the solo singing category. Gousset earned a superior with her song “Climbing Uphill” from the show “The Last Five Years,” and Crockett won superior with her song “I Want More” from the show “Lestat.”

“I was extremely surprised and honored to have won,” Crockett said. “All the hard work of practicing everyday paid off.”

Besides the competition part of Thescon, there are also multiple workshops and classes that are available for everyone present. Taught by professionals, these classes focus on parts of theatre production and performance that are very specific and not traditionally taught to high school students. Tupelo students  participated in classes such as stage fighting, swing dancing, broadway dance, costuming, makeup and leadership.

In these classes, Austin said students are around not only thespians from their own school but also thespians from various other schools. This allows thespians from all over the state to be able to mingle and learn from one another in a safe and encouraging environment.