The Pattonville Pirate Players attended the Missouri State Thespian Conference January 9-12 … well, that’s when they planned on staying until.

In anticipation of the snow and hazardous road conditions over the weekend, it meant that the students were required to stay another night in Kansas City.

Thespians spent the four days doing different workshops like musical theatre dance, Fosse, sword fighting, improvisation, and more. They also had the chance to perform in individual events and partake in auditions for different things.

Junior Elise Thompkins did not let a little snow ruin her fun at the conference.

“This weekend, I had the opportunity to do a group acting IE (individual event) and Tech challenge,” she said. “The fact that we got snowed in just makes it better so I could procrastinate on my homework more so I’m not complaining. I do miss my dog though, so I’ll be excited to go home and see him.”

Although the trip was lengthened to Sunday, January 13, they enjoyed their extra night in Kansas City with food, fun and card games.

The Missouri State Thespian Conference board put together a late-night karaoke event for the theatre students to enjoy some time together instead of having them just sit in their rooms watching TV.

Junior Lydia McCullough and senior Brittany Strasburger decided to put a number together to show everyone at karaoke night. These two rewrote “Baby It’s Cold Outside” into a Thespian conference tribute.

“We were originally going to sing ‘Tequila’ with a choreographed dance but this idea was so much better,” McCullough said.

Some students stayed back to enjoy card games like Uno and Cards Against Humanity.

Attendees performed in the All-State opening number (Emily Barton and Alayna Hopgood), participated in the Improv Intensive (Kaitlyn Kelly, Jarred McCormick, Lydia McCullough, Kyle Craig, Brittany Stasburger), Tech Challenge (Elise Thompkins, Lacey Harder, Seth White, Aeeda Talukder), and competed in other individual events (Monologue: Kaitlyn Kelly; Duet Acting: Kyle Craig and Alayna Hopgood; Group Acting: Lacey Harder, Elise Thompkins and Seth White; Solo Musical Theatre: Alone Gibson; Duet Musical Theatre: Emily Barton and Lydia McCullough; Short Film: Brittany Strasburger).

Kyle Craig and Kaitlyn Kelly auditioned for acting scholarships and Emily Barton auditioned for the 2020 All-State show.

Lacey Harder was also recognized as a finalist for the Theatre for Life Scholarship.