Tech students recently chased their dreams to Seattle to attend a nationwide technical theater convention: United States Institute of Technical Theater.
The USITT club started with an “increasing interest” in the production program as stated by former Technical Theater teacher Erin Beatie.
“I found that there was a very large nation-wide group (like FFA) that allowed for high school level chapters. We were the eighth high school to successfully form a chapter in the nation” Beatie explains.
In the club, they plan, design and run shows and events across the campus. They also do community outreach helping other high schools to fix, create and/or upgrade their performance spaces, and can work or volunteer with local community theater groups.
The members of the club were able to go on this life-changing trip by saving money through fundraisers and students have shown a huge excitement with the trip such as senior and club treasurer, Mia Guerra.
“It was still a really fun experience,” Guerra stated. “Erin was kind enough to custom schedule everyone and mine focused a lot on costuming and hair and makeup and scenic design and it was so much fun.”
The convention also gave out free tickets to the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPop). The museum features culture, pop culture, music and gaming which the students have also shown a huge interest in. They include many different genres as well like horror and sci-fi. One of the exhibits included there was Laika, is the company behind productions such as Coraline and Paranorman.
“We got to go to the MoPop museum which was amazing,” Guerra continues, “Genuinely when I saw the Ender Dragon model hanging from two wires in the lobby, I cried tears of joy because she’s so beautiful.”
Another student who showed interest in the convention was sophomore Mason Block, a member of the USITT club.
“I walked around the expo hall, which was really cool,” Block said. “I got to see a lot of cool, very expensive light sound systems.”
The convention had mostly college students, and Bear River was one of the only high schools attending. They had many job opportunities for college students and Block was able to get a job opportunity he unfortunately couldn’t accept due to his age.
“I was sitting there during one of my stations and a guy asked if I would be interested in doing the Zach Bryan tour and working on the tour,” Block explained.
The convention was not only fun but a life-changing experience for the students especially those looking into jobs in the field in the future.
“This actually helped me widen my expansion of what I want to do later in the future in the theater area and the tech area” Block stated.
An additional note from Beatie:
“I would also like to add a huge thank you to the people who donated to help get our kids to the USITT Conference. There were a lot of people who really believed in these kids having this opportunity. Donations came in as far out as New York City to support our kids in our little town. The donor support totaled $8,908.71. Because of the amazing level of support we received, not one person had to pay full price for the trip”