Transportation is the biggest challenge for island’s thespians

Transportation is by far the biggest challenge for the Thespians of the Western Pacific Islands, the CNMI Thespian chapter affiliated with the Educational Theatre Association.

“Our biggest need is transportation. Choruses and theater groups move light. We don’t need props, we don’t need sets, they all know how to mime, singers can sing, the sound equipment we take is minor. The transportation, on the other hand, is major,” said chapter director Harold Easton.

Easton, guest speaker at the Saipan Rotary Club meeting Tuesday, explained that the TWPI recently had a big influx of students who need to be moved around because of the Marianas High School choral group.

Members of the choral group, Easton said, are among the participants for the 2011 Thespian Festival to be held on June 20 to 25 at the University of Lincoln-Nebraska.

Categories for the festival include monologue, duet acting, solo musical theater, mime, set design, costume design, film, with the recent addition of group musical theater.

According to Easton, the school buses owned by the Public School System cannot accommodate these students as these are already tied up in transporting other students to and from school.

“We have school vans but they’re not big enough,” said Easton as he explained that it would take one van several trips to move the entire choral group.

Easton also noted that they need community members who can serve as judges in the four to 5five competitions they conduct each year that determine participants in the annual Thespian Festival through a point system.

Community judges, Easton said, are generally more flexible than those who are associated with the theater.

Easton said students participating in this year’s Thespian Festival have already presented their individual events to the public at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center last Monday.

At 6:30pm on Thursday, they will put on their three group shows also at the center.

“Our students do very well. They’re highly talented, they work very hard in what they do,” said Easton.

TWPI is an honor society and Thespian chapter made up of various troops consisting of students from grades 6 to 12 in different schools.

The group holds a number of events annually, including Thespian chapter play and several competitions. For information, call Harold Easton at 237-3230 or email Frank Gibson of the Friends of the Arts, which supports the TWPI, at flgibson@yahoo.com.