The Kansas Thespian Festival is an annual conference for drama students who have been inducted in the International Thespian Society, an honor reserved for students who have participated in over a hundred hours of theatre work over the course of high school. Over 1,600 students attended the festival this weekend, Jan. 9-11, at Hyatt Regency Wichita, growing their theatre knowledge by attending a series of workshop sessions and watching several performances. The main evening performances were the musicals Pippin and Miss You Like Hell and the play All My Sons.

The festival also provides ways for students to showcase their talent, with audition opportunities and competitive events. Great Bend’s thespian troupe took 2nd place in speed charades and competed in quiz bowl and costume design. Senior Hayden Honomichl earned a role in an original one act performance that was being showcased at the conference, where he played a woman’s dead father as she was learning about his past through letters he left behind.

Come watch the theatre department murder their spring play with And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie on March 1-3.