Approximately seventeen hundred pairs of eyes stare at a stage dimly lit from a spotlight. Zaria Aikens ’18 hobbles across the stage using a cane, belting out lines to other cast members of South’s production of Lost in Yonkers.

Along with Aikens, South Pointe Players had the opportunity to set the stage one last time for their production of Lost in Yonkers last Friday and Saturday at Saginaw Valley during this year’s Michigan Thespian Festival.

According to Meaghan Dunham, Lost in Yonkers director and English and Theatre Instructor at South, the festival is a statewide gathering involving high school thespians who are involved in theater in high schools across the state.

“It is a two day conference where the kids have a chance to perform main stage shows and to see other schools do the same, and take classes,” Dunham said. “Fifty different teachers come from all over the country and teach things on script analysis, playwriting, vocal techniques, set design, everything. I mean, the sky’s the limit.”

According to Dunham, students had the opportunity to perform in individual events, where colleges, professional performers or set designers from throughout the state can give them feedback.

“A lot of colleges come and they get a chance to either audition or just check out different theater programs, so each of these is an amazing opportunity for these kids who are interested in theater either as a profession or just as a way to make themselves more interesting individuals,” Dunham said.

Aikens said she is looking at colleges, and isn’t sure yet if she wants to go into the performing arts field or explore some else.

“I am really hoping that by going to Thespian Festival, I can get some insight from some professors, even my peers; just some sort of direction.”

Aikens said she was ecstatic to be able to perform Lost in Yonkers at the festival, as well as socializing with others who share a similar passion for performing arts. In the midst of it all, Aikens said the crew, actors and actresses had to diligently prepare for the honor of being able to perform for a crowd invested in the arts.

“We do costuming, we are running lines, we’re putting together sets and we’re improving and we are doing a lot of things to prepare for the show,” Aikens said. “We perform, and then after we spend the rest of the time reflecting and taking down the set and talking to people about our performance.”

Muriel Steinke ’18, vice president of Pointe Players, said there will be workshops for those that are behind the scenes and are members of the crew.

“You learn how to just be a better actor,” Steinke said about the experience presented to young thespians during their time in Saginaw. “You learn how to project your voice and make interesting decisions on stage and how to captivate an audience.”

Hailey Martin ’18, a member of the Lost in Yonkers crew, said she was looking forward to the experience of being able to be surrounded by a vast number of people who share similar interests as her.

“I’m hoping to learn how to be a better actor,” Martin said. “I am looking forward to performing the play. It is a really cool opportunity that South got to do it and it will bring a lot of publicity back to South.”

Dunham said she hopes thespians will expand the horizons of their capabilities within the performing arts and grow as young actors, whether they are under the spotlight or shifting set pieces backstage, by figuring out where their interests and talents lie.

“They might figure out that they’re really good at dialects, they might see two shows that they’ve never heard of, and come back and start reading more plays,” Dunham said. “I hope they experience both the trepidation and the amazing rush that it is to perform for that many kids who are so invested in theater.”

The power of live theater exposes thespians’ potential to grow due to how it is not just a single teacher or a single experience teaching them, but a concentrated experience in so many different areas, Dunham said.

“Those are students who live this stuff. They just soak it up like sponges,” Dunham said. “Our students are exposed to more kids who feel the same way they do and come back so geeked. It does that for the teacher too; it does that for me because I have a chance to network with peers as they network with their peers and there’s no downside. It’s a win-win, pretty much for everyone.”

At the festival Dunham received the honor of being inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Michigan Educational Theatre Association. Students Calyx Turco, Cinderella Ksebati, Luke Bove, Jerome Manning and Mary Reinman, all ’16 received superiors in their individual events, and Grayson Kennedy ’19 got an excellent for his monologue.