Theatre students from Parrish Community High School and Manatee School for the Arts returned from the District 9 Thespy Festival with dozens of Superior and Excellent ratings and several top honors.
Parrish Community High School’s 33-member Troupe 10185 competed in 30 acting, musical theatre and technical theatre events during the festival on Saturday. Students earned 21 Superior ratings, the festival’s highest rating, along with nine Excellent ratings. Six entries also received top honors as the highest-rated performances or presentations in their rooms.
The results came during a particularly busy period for the Parrish theatre program. Students prepared their Thespy entries while simultaneously working on the school’s production of Into the Woods, which opens this weekend.
Manatee School for the Arts’ Senior Thespian Troupe 6458 also had a strong showing at the District 9 competition. MSA students earned 11 Superior ratings and eight Excellent ratings. Three of the Superior-rated entries received top honors in their categories.
Those top-honor performances are in consideration for the opportunity to represent District 9 during the opening ceremony of the Florida State Thespian Festival in March, where selected students could perform before thousands of theatre students from across Florida.
The District 9 festival brought together 51 schools and more than 1,000 theatre students, making it one of Florida’s largest district Thespian competitions. Students competed in a wide range of performance and technical theatre categories.
The annual Thespy competition gives student performers and technicians opportunities to demonstrate their skills in areas including acting, musical theatre and technical theatre, with qualifying students advancing toward statewide competition.
For both Manatee County schools, this year’s results highlighted the strength of local high school theatre programs, with the two troupes combining for 32 Superior ratings, 17 Excellent ratings and nine top honors.
