On January 12th, before the sun had even begun to rise, Paint Branch Perspectives Members were up and at ‘em eating pancakes at IHOP before making the 45 minute journey north to Towson University where the annual Maryland Thespian Festival took place.

The Thespian Festival is a two day event where drama kids from all across Maryland gather together to perform, learn, and make new friends. They engage in workshops where they are able to learn, hands-on, the different parts that make up theater. Competitions such as the trash costumes contest, where groups of four have to create a costume out of trash in seven minutes around a specific theme, and the Tech Olympics, where sets of rigorous tasks test skills such as tarp folding, cable wrapping, prop setting, and, of course, the tedious costume change. All of these are timed to see just how fast competitors able to complete these tasks.

After the opening ceremony, Paint Branch headed to lunch and then it was off to performing their One Act piece for the competition, a piece from “All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten.”
Judges took in the schools who performed a One Act and then gave out awards the following day at the closing ceremony. Paint Branch received the prestigious award of Best Costume, while three of Perspectives’ incredibly gifted students, Eric Aaron, Samantha Ortiz, and Madeline Rose Halpin, received prestigious awards. Aaron received All State Thespian and Best Actor, Ortiz received All State Thespian, and Halpin received Best Actor.

Perspectives Director Ms. Perkins couldn’t have been more proud of her students, exclaiming “I am always proud of the work my students do whether they receive awards or not, but I know the awards are validation for them so I am happy when they receive them!”
Aaron rejoiced, stating that he “felt surprised and honored to get the awards.”
Ortiz described the moment as “exciting because all my hard work towards everything involving theatre paid off.”

Halpin celebrated in a Youtube vlog that “It was awesome and completely unexpected!” With the festival now behind them, the Perspectives group is gearing up for their spring musical where they will perform “Emma! A Pop Musical.” Please make sure to come out and watch it on opening night, March 16th at 7pm in the Paint Branch Auditorium.