“ThesCon is a big deal,” proclaimed Miss Williams, the Loganville High School drama teacher. It is a “competitive convention for high school students that are interested in theatrics,” according to Sean Westbrook, a senior drama student. On February 14th through the 16th, eleven of our school’s drama students had the opportunity to attend this event, which was held in Columbus, Georgia. Sean noted that ThesCon is close to Alabama - an “inconvenient location” when one considers that the convention is for all of Georgia while Rianah Prince, another senior drama student who attended, commented on the environment: “It was fun - very nice and friendly.” There were many things to do while at ThesCon such as workshops, shows, and meetings. Participants had the opportunity to see many student-produced shows, and at the end of the convention, they do “essentially the best of the best competition pieces,” according to Miss Williams. Professional judges decided which are the best twenty acts at the convention and they performed their acts in front of all the attendees - several thousand people. This year, Loganville performed four I.E.s (Individual Events). I.E.s are small groups of students performing small scenes in front of judges to be ranked. This year, all four Loganville I.E.s received a rank of excellent, which is the equivalent to a 90. Superior, the equivalent to a 98, is the only ranking above Excellent. Miss Williams stated that to her knowledge, “these are the first I.E.s that Loganville has put forward in a decade. I think we did incredible.” There were many other opportunities at the convention, such as seniors having the opportunity to audition for colleges and for scholarships. These were the main reasons for Sean Westbrook’s attendance this year. His favorite part of the trip was getting to see the city and getting to be away from Loganville. On the other hand, Rianah’s favorite part was attending all the various workshops. She stated that there was not a single thing that she did not like about the experience, but Sean was not a fan of the various dance activities. He said that one of the biggest advantages one can take from ThesCon is “human interaction, being away from home, and getting to do your own thing.” Rianah explained that “if you were interested in pursuing an acting career, it would help you become a better performer.” For anyone interested in attending next year, Miss Williams noted that “In order to go, you must be an inducted Thespian.” This means that a student must have at least ten thespian points, which are earned by either being in plays, helping with plays, or going to see plays. Miss Williams hopes to take twenty students next year and wants to begin making students aware of the opportunity to attend ThesCon in April and May so that students may “hit the ground running in August” to gain the needed points to attend ThesCon.