33 students along with theatre director Heather Willingham are starting the week long Thanksgiving break early as they take part in the Texas Thespian Festival in Grapevine Thursday through Saturday.

“We’re going to have close to eight thousand students in Texas and surrounding states this year so it’s a record number,” Willingham said. “The purpose of it is to foster a love of theatre and in the educational aspects of it and how it affects every part of our lives.”

Students will be taking part in more than a dozen events ranging from technical events to performance events.

“This year I will be presenting a stage managing competition,” junior Jade Garrett said. “I will make a production book which has pretty much all the information for this year’s musical, “Little Women,” and I will go in and judges will judge me and if I get a good enough score, I can go to nationals.”

Although students will be competing in different contests, there are also dozens of workshops being taught by experts in their field covering things such as acting and performing, lighting, directing, stage management, dance, and playwriting.

“I’m kind of new at stage managing so this is actually really fun,” Garrett said. “I’m learning, there’s a whole lot of workshops that I can go to, there’s fun improve stuff that we can do, and play writing stuff, so it’s going to be a good experience.”

Inducted thespians who qualify at their chapter conference event can participate in National Individual Events, a special program of the International Thespian Society.

“We hope to advance to nationals for some of the things we’re competing in,” Willingham said. “Especially with our play gifted that we’re taking. This is the first time we’ve taken a show to main stage and we go to a lot of workshops so we’re just going to hope to learn as much about theatre that we don’t already know is possible.”